--- title: CakePHP 5.4 is around the corner – DerEuroMark | daily.dev description: CakePHP 5.4.0-RC2 is out with roughly 100 commits of changes. Key highlights include: a new default eager loading strategy (subquery instead of select) for... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/cakephp-5-4-is-around-the-corner-dereuromark-ynzmlrpz0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: CakePHP 5.4 is around the corner – DerEuroMark | daily.dev og:description: CakePHP 5.4.0-RC2 is out with roughly 100 commits of changes. Key highlights include: a new default eager loading strategy (subquery instead of select) for... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/cakephp-5-4-is-around-the-corner-dereuromark-ynzmlrpz0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/YNzMlRPz0.png og:image:alt: CakePHP 5.4 is around the corner – DerEuroMark og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # CakePHP 5.4 is around the corner – DerEuroMark **[DerEuroMark](https://daily.dev/sources/dereuromark)** · 12 min read · 2 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary CakePHP 5.4.0-RC2 is out with roughly 100 commits of changes. Key highlights include: a new default eager loading strategy (subquery instead of select) for HasMany/BelongsToMany associations; fixed transaction commit callbacks (afterSaveCommit/afterDeleteCommit) now firing correctly in nested transactions; stricter entity class checks to prevent silent cross-table operations; a new unhydratedFind() for type-safe raw row reads; new query expression methods (notBetween, inOrNull, isDistinctFrom, stringAgg, EXCEPT); collection helpers (keys, values, implode, when/unless); Text::mask() and Text::maskValue() for safe logging; TestCase::mockModel() with Mockery support; EnumLabelTrait with #[Label] attribute; a fluent Finder filesystem utility; JsonStreamResponse for streaming large payloads; RequestToDto attribute for typed controller action arguments; an in-tree DI container forked from league/container; CSP-compatible hidden form inputs; and a new distributed Lock component with Redis, Memcached, File, and Null engines. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@allinonetools** · 1 upvotes > Nice upgrade. The new eager loading strategy and `RequestToDto` alone feel like they'll clean up a lot of everyday CakePHP code. **@jenueldev** · 0 upvotes > Great roundup of what's coming in 5.4! The subquery-based eager loading default and the new Lock component are especially welcome, nested transaction callback fixes alone will save a lot of debugging headaches. Excited to try unhydratedFind() and the masking helpers for cleaner logs. Thanks for putting this together, DerEuroMark! **@elvismilans** · 0 upvotes > I used it when it was 2.4 ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [CakePHP Fixture Factories 2.0 – DerEuroMark](https://daily.dev/posts/cakephp-fixture-factories-2-0-dereuromark-eim429ahg) · DerEuroMark · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [CakePHP is now fully generics-able – DerEuroMark](https://daily.dev/posts/cakephp-is-now-fully-generics-able-dereuromark-cwz39vwo6) · DerEuroMark · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#phpstan](https://daily.dev/tags/phpstan) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/cakephp-5-4-is-around-the-corner-dereuromark-ynzmlrpz0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"CakePHP 5.4 is around the corner – DerEuroMark","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cakephp-5-4-is-around-the-corner-dereuromark-ynzmlrpz0","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/cakephp-5-4-is-around-the-corner-dereuromark-ynzmlrpz0"},"datePublished":"2026-06-29T00:26:36.817Z","dateModified":"2026-06-29T00:27:03.913Z","description":"CakePHP 5.4.0-RC2 is out with roughly 100 commits of changes. 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The new eager loading strategy and RequestToDto alone feel like they’ll clean up a lot of everyday CakePHP code.","datePublished":"2026-06-29T02:55:22.585Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/YNzMlRPz0#c-zpajQmvqL","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"AllInOneTools","url":"https://daily.dev/allinonetools","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--4ZT8QlF0--/f_auto/v1769790028/avatars/avatar_igzBsWloJeaegzm9bQltZ?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Great roundup of what’s coming in 5.4! The subquery-based eager loading default and the new Lock component are especially welcome, nested transaction callback fixes alone will save a lot of debugging headaches. Excited to try unhydratedFind() and the masking helpers for cleaner logs. Thanks for putting this together, DerEuroMark!","datePublished":"2026-07-04T04:33:25.959Z","dateModified":"2026-07-04T04:33:42.996Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/YNzMlRPz0#c-vGntVyJtc","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jenuel Oras Ganawed","url":"https://daily.dev/jenueldev","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--BadmiNyj--/f_auto/v1787625077/avatars/avatar_JJtZr4Sjm?_a=BAMAMicg0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I used it when it was 2.4","datePublished":"2026-07-05T19:51:40.256Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/YNzMlRPz0#c-19BBzWSqr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Elvis Milan","url":"https://daily.dev/elvismilans","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OioiZlRF--/f_auto/v1776773312/avatars/avatar_jGhYUESlfPVnKvU5bUr1K?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"}}]} ```