Shopware Community UnConference 2024
#scuc24 in Cologne - A review

This weekend, I attended the annual #SCUC - Shopware Community UnConference 2024 in Cologne, hosted by Firegento e.V..This association supports both Magento/Mage-OS and the Shopware Community.

As a longtime member of the Magento Community, I had reservations about integrating into the Shopware community. Despite the similarities in their tech stacks, a perceived barrier always existed. However, the trend of Magento developers and agencies exploring Shopware has grown, and Rico Neitzel, one of our Co-Founders, has been with Shopware for years! This made it easy for me to join, too!

Humans often accept and spread rumors without verification, fostering misinformation, biases, and impairing judgment. The misconceptions about Shopware's culture, skills, and openness were unfounded.

I heard rumours about the Shopware culture, their skills and their openness.To all those who heard these before... It's just not true.

Upon arriving at the venue, I was immediately greeted by friends. The opening presentation included an interactive game, fostering new connections. I quickly found myself in a circle of new peers, making the experience significantly more enjoyable. A big Thank you! to those who introduced me to others.

Caching remains a complex yet critical topic in technology. Adrian Gillmann from Maxcluster delivered a standout presentation on implementing Varnish Cache with Shopware 6, reducing TTFB from ~130ms to <30ms — a must for Shopware installations. During his presentation, he used the Shopware Web Installer, which was a bit surprising given the fact that most developer in the room haven't ever seen it in action. Adrian recommended to use to common composer way of course, and that the Web Installer was just handy for his presentation.

The Redis license change was a prominent topic, too. What will be the successor? A few people looked towards DragonFly. We'll see.

Rico Neitzel had a well visited session about composable commerce. With a critical view, he mentioned that there are yet no standards and that the actual implementation of composability is a big challenge for merchants.

The demand for system flexibility has led to the rise of composable commerce. This approach allows easy swapping of components like search engines. Despite the appeal, the lack of standard interfaces limits true composability. The MACH Alliance is working towards standardization, but integrating new services still requires substantial groundwork.

The discussions often overlooked the complexities of distributed systems, including the need for specialized knowledge in tracing, log management, and storage architectures. Acknowledging these hidden costs is essential, especially considering the challenges and increased maintenance costs associated with premature adoption of trends like microservices or now, composable commerce.

Rico gave a talk about his critical view on composable commerce. Check out his blog post about it!

PHP Elephants are rare. To get that cool looking black elephant from Mollie, you need to be in the Top 3 of a Quiz. The tricky part? The quiz had general questions about Mollie and Shopware, but also some tech-heavy questions! To round it up, they always throw in some Fun Questions, like "What was the longest Mario Cart Race that ever took place?".

Ksenia and Lena from Mollie did a fantastic job organizing and moderating the Quiz. Unfortunately, I didn't win although it was my 4th try at an UnConference... I won't give up, though.

My first Shopware event exceeded my expectations, offering valuable connections and insights. I'm eager for SCD24, where I hope to reconnect with the community and continue learning.

P.S. The table soccer somehow had some quality issues. This little guy broke after my first shot...