The CakePHP core team is happy to announce the first release candidate for CakePHP 5.1.0. The 5.1 release includes several behavior changes to increase correctness and new features. The highlights of those include:

• Connection now creates unique read and write drivers if the keys read or write are present in the config regardless of values.
• FormHelper no longer generates aria-required attributes on input elements that also have the required attribute set. The aria-required attribute is redundant on these elements and generates HTML validation warnings. If you are using aria-required attribute in styling or scripting you'll need to update your application.
• Adding associations with duplicate names will now raise exceptions. You can use $table->associations()->has() to conditionally define associations if required.
• View cells now emit events around their actions Cell.beforeAction and Cell.afterAction.
• Validation::enum() and Validator::enum() were added. These validation methods simplify validating backed enum values.
• Validation::enumOnly() and Validation::enumExcept() were added to check for specific cases and further simplify validating backed enum values.
• Client now emits HttpClient.beforeSend and HttpClient.afterSend events when requests are sent. You can use these events to perform logging, caching or collect telemetry.
• Http\Server::terminate() was added. This method triggers the Server.terminate event which can be used to run logic after the response has been sent in fastcgi environments. In other environments the Server.terminate event runs before the response has been sent.

What's new in 5.1.0

The migration guide has a complete list of what's new in 5.1.0. We recommend you give that page a read when upgrading as it notes the behavior changes present in 5.1.0.

How you Can Help

You can help deliver 5.1.0 by contributing in one of many ways:

1. Check the documentation for mistakes, outdated, unclear or broken examples. We've been trying to update the documentation as we go, but there are likely examples or sections we've missed.
2. Try it out! Give CakePHP 5.1.0 a test drive. Let us know how upgrading went and if there were any rough spots.
3. File issues for regressions in existing features, or suggest new features. Even if those features don't make it into 5.1.0, we're early in the process of planning 5.2 and value community feedback.

Contributors to 5.1.0-RC1

Thank you to all the contributors that have contributed to this release:

• Adam Halfar

• ADmad

• Fernando Herrero

• Frank de Graaf (Phally)

• J.Brabec

• Jozef Grencik

• Kevin Pfeifer

• KrzysiekNDS

• Mark Scherer

• Mark Story

• Maximilian Ruta

• ndm2

• othercorey

• Robert Pustułka

As always, a huge thanks to all the community members that helped make this release happen by reporting issues and sending pull requests.