Good PHP IDE?

**Wardrop** · Mar 30, 2009, 23:46

I've pretty much only ever used Dreamweaver for writing PHP apps. While it hasn't got too many PHP development smarts (the function hints and code highlighting are about as far as it goes), it does have a few key features which have made me stick with dreamweaver. They are...

Design View - Design view offers a great way to navigate through html and php code.
Simple Project Management - Dreamweaver has a very simple project manage, or rather, file management interface. It allows you to manage large projects, while still giving the flexibility to play around with just a couple of test files. The Remote Server and Testing Server components, with support for FTP are also quite handy.
Good Search Tool - Supports plain text and regex search and replace, and also offers many levels of searching (current page, entire site, selected files, etc).

There's the good points about Dreamweaver, but at the end of the day, it's just not an Intergrated Development Environment. I have tried Zend Studio Eclipse (6.01), but found it sluggish, bloated and not all that intuitive, but it did have some very nice features and abilities which were hard to leave behind.

I'm still on the hunt for a good IDE which share some, if not all, of those good points I listed for Dreamweaver. Can I get a few thoughts, opinions, suggestions or recommendations (you get the drift) from some of you PHP developers?

Cheers

**jeffvdovjak** · Mar 31, 2009, 01:22

I like aptana. i use it now.
i also keep notepad2 on a thumb drive attached to my keychain in case I'm somewhere and I get struck by brilliance (i know, I'm compulsive)

**MetalHippy** · Mar 31, 2009, 01:28

I tend to use Eclipse with the PHP IDE Project plug-in, I find it quick enough and pretty intuitive. Apart from Eclipse have a look at (if you haven't already)

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/op...ide/index.html

which has some info on other ide's

Hope that helps

Mike

**Boxer** · Mar 31, 2009, 01:57

Eclipse PDT rocks, it shows you outline of the whole project (classes and functions tree), across all files, it suggests you functions and vars as you type and... so much more.

**sk89q** · Mar 31, 2009, 08:00

Another Eclipse user here. I use Zend Studio. I like that I can use Eclipse for many languages (PHP, JavaScript, Python, Java, C/C++, etc.) and it's more than just syntax highlighting.

However, try out NuSphere PHPEd. There's also PHP Designer and PHPEdit, although I find those two to be buggy.

**ArtDeco** · Mar 31, 2009, 08:20

Do any of these have a linux version? I gave up on Windows when Vista came out and really miss my Notepad+ for working with code.

**praetor** · Mar 31, 2009, 08:27

eclipse should run on linux (with jvm)

**Poiesis01** · Mar 31, 2009, 08:30

Originally Posted by ArtDeco

Do any of these have a linux version? I gave up on Windows when Vista came out and really miss my Notepad+ for working with code.

Eclipse PDT is available for Windows32, Mac OS X and Linux

**ArtDeco** · Mar 31, 2009, 08:35

Thanks praetor and Poiesis01. I'll go look into it now. Is there a +rep button on this board?

**Jake Arkinstall** · Mar 31, 2009, 08:51

Nope.

I recommend (G)Vim, even though I haven't quite gotten used to it yet it's a fantastic application.

Design view is actually the reason I, and many others, dislike dreamweaver - Design View is the cause of so many badly-made websites. If used properly (as a view not a designer), it's good I suppose.

We really need a sticky on this... It's getting ridiculous how many threads there are about this kind of thing. I'll see what I can do...

**logic_earth** · Mar 31, 2009, 09:13

Originally Posted by arkinstall

We really need a sticky on this... It's getting ridiculous how many threads there are about this kind of thing. I'll see what I can do...

Got one here: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=346481

**philm** · Mar 31, 2009, 09:47

NetBeans is pretty good too...

http://www.netbeans.org/features/php/index.html

**Gman** · Mar 31, 2009, 09:57

yeah, I use netbeans and phpDesigner

**ArtDeco** · Mar 31, 2009, 10:12

While Eclipse was downloading (huge file) I checked the above sticky and saw Bluefish which I actually used and liked a while ago and then completely forgot about. So now I'll have two new editors to play with. Gotta love it.

**Jake Arkinstall** · Mar 31, 2009, 11:27

One thing I can say is if you're super-comfortable with PHP then you should really try Vim.

It's not a text editor like the editors that you're used to - by far. It's a learning curve but is well worth it

Especially if you don't use your mouse much. If you want good mouse independence, VIM :P

**Vali** · Mar 31, 2009, 12:49

I can't choose one... they all have bits I need, they are all good but they all SUCK... so I end up using a few IDEs to complement each other...

Zend Studio for Eclipse.
+ The code completion feature works great.
+ PHP auto format works great
+ Built in phpDocumentor
+ Built in testing suits
+ Can add whatever addons you want (it's eclipse)
+ Built in svn/cvs
- Doesn't support php docs for magic functions...
- Autoformat HTML doesn't quite cut it.
- Can't find a way to link files (header/footer includes so it doesn't warn about broken tags)

NetBeans
+ Supports auto complete for magic functions (YEY!)
- Couldn't get the auto complete functionality to work correctly... from html and so on...
- Auto formatter doesn't quite cut it.

Aptana
+ Can be an eclipse plugin (add it to Zend Studio for Eclipse)
+ HTML auto format is not bad (not as good as dream weaver but good enough)
- Auto complete sucks...

Dreamweaver
+ Great for html/css
+ Great FTP
- No auto complete for php...
- Doesn't show php errors in the IDE

The perfect IDE would be:
+ Zend Studio for Eclipse auto complete
+ NetBeans magic functions auto complete
+ Dreamweaver/Aptana/Zend Studio for Eclipse html / css auto complete
+ Zend Studio for Eclipse php auto format (maybe a bit more dynamic than they have it)
+ Dreamweaver/Aptana html auto format
+ Dreamweaver or smarter FTP / site management
+ Zend Studio for Eclipse custom code coloring.
All this in eclipse (or something similar) so it can be extended via plug ins.

If you guys know such an editor, please share... I'm currently using 5 editors to get sites up... and it's a b**ch switching between them all the time

**logic_earth** · Mar 31, 2009, 13:04

@Vali, sounds like you really need to simplify and let go of some features. Or remove dependencies on certain features. Anyways I personally use and recommend Komodo IDE for paid, and Edit for free.

**Vali** · Mar 31, 2009, 13:12

Auto complete saves TONS of development time, when it works it can save around 30%-50% of the development time.

Auto format saves TONS of debugging time, I try to always auto-format before I commit to SVN, so when something breaks and I need to know what, I will diff the file and see what changed. Also, saves time because you know what to look for.
Ex: you get a file changed by someone else, a designer lets say, auto format, check diff, see the 3 lines out of 500 that changed and pow your don, saved you a few hours of digging for that extra/missing tag/semicolon.

Code Coloring... I use allot of languages, so like most of them to look similar if not the same.

Am I to demanding of my IDE?

**logic_earth** · Mar 31, 2009, 13:18

Originally Posted by Vali

...Am I to demanding of my IDE?

When you need 5 different editors to get everything you want...I think that is a warning sign... :P
Probably a sign you need to make your own IDE.

Komodo, does have support for formatters, use the ones built in or add your own.

**Vali** · Mar 31, 2009, 13:40

lol it was more of a rhetorical question.

Does Komodo support auto complete correctly? for html, css and php (including magic functions defined by php docs)?

**logic_earth** · Mar 31, 2009, 13:50

Originally Posted by Vali

lol it was more of a rhetorical question.

Does Komodo support auto complete correctly? for html, css and php (including magic functions defined by php docs)?

As far as I can tell magic methods do not appear in the list, I however just did a quick test. Without doing extensive testing I say it does auto complete correctly. Just be aware that to get the ending tag in HTML one has to enter "</" before its added.

**Vali** · Mar 31, 2009, 13:53

Can you test:
>> http://manual.phpdoc.org/HTMLSmartyC...ethod.pkg.html

And let us know if that works?

**logic_earth** · Mar 31, 2009, 14:13

Nope doesn't seem to understand @method. I do know it understands PHPDocs tho.

Without PHPDoc on __call:

With PHPDoc:

**Vali** · Mar 31, 2009, 14:37

95% of my stuff uses __get or __set or __call, so auto complete without that is not that useful...

Thanks for the reply.

**Wardrop** · Mar 31, 2009, 20:00

Originally Posted by arkinstall

Nope.
Design view is actually the reason I, and many others, dislike dreamweaver - Design View is the cause of so many badly-made websites. If used properly (as a view not a designer), it's good I suppose.

I use Design View strictly as a means to navigate code. I don't use it to modify code or even reference my designs (because the rendering engine is so old). I really am only using about 5% of the features dreamweaver offers, but I'm yet to find an IDE that has even half of those features I use implemented.

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