Dreamweaver and PHP (Alternatives)

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Dreamweaver and PHP (Alternatives)

Hello, I know there has been quite a few comments on this topic.

I have tested quite a few IDE's for PHP, I have liked phpDesigner 7, which is great for PHP... but I like the way Dreamweaver has the live rendered view for quick layouts and design.

It could be done by rendering to the browser and using firebug, but I really like using the dreamweaver option. My fault in dreamweaver is i'm sure a lot of people having the same problem. Intellisense, or Syntax support. You get the basic of 2500 php tags, but I would like it to be more intuitive. such as dynamic variables, perhaps code completion and things of this nature.

I have been searching and testing, many many... is there anything that can compare or take-over the dreamweaver? Or even an extension that makes PHP code much better in DW? I have DWCS4 currently, I hope it gets fixed if they come out with CS5.

I actually kind of like Eclipse's php support.

Chris J 2010-02-04 00:05:16

+1 A:

Try Aptana Studio, I use it every day as part of my job (even though I have an install of Dreamweaver). It may be difficult to get used to at first and it's built on eclipse so it's not quite as crisp as some other IDE's but I wouldn't turn back now!

One of the major things that interested me was advanced code hinting (including hinting for functions and classes defined in your source code).

Rowan 2010-02-04 00:05:54

Aptana, as much as I dislike Eclipse, is the best IDE for web development, hands down.

musicfreak 2010-02-04 00:07:38

Yes I have downloaded Aptana today and did some testing with it, the overall feel is great. Just wish it had both spectrums... I know the 1337 use pure code, but when I do my layouts I really prefer the design view in DW. I guess I Will just have to mix using both programs.Why does no one mix the 2 ideas??? so strange to me.

Justin 2010-02-04 00:52:32

I do tend to use both. I find dreamweaver's HTML editing a lot nicer than Aptana's but write all of my PHP and Javascript in Aptana. Not ideal, I know, but I have yet to find an IDE that can do *everything*.

Rowan 2010-02-04 07:28:12

NetBeans PHP support is very good.

Ondra Žižka 2010-02-04 00:07:09

I was in the same boat and then I decided to try http://netbeans.org/features/php/. It changed my life. I started it up the first time, and haven't opened DreamWeaver since.

Tyler Smith 2010-02-04 00:08:29

I use Zend Studio 7.1. I've tried Aptana and Netbeans, but I always go back to Studio (I've just become so accustomed to some of Studio's features that I can't live without them). That being said, all 3 are good programs (leaps and bounds better than Dreamweaver), and you should try each one to see what fits best.

Arms 2010-02-04 00:13:32

Microsoft's Expression Web also supports PHP development. I never used it for PHP development so I can't tell what it feels like. There's also one killer feature in Expression Web no matter what kind of web do you develop... SuperPreview.

You can download the trial here.

Miroslav Popovic 2010-02-04 00:17:37

Yes I can agree I did try it, and it is the same support for PHP that Dreamweaver has. But Dreamweaver and Expressions are prob the best for dynamic previews and rendered CSS. Plus the benefit of Super Preview... although dreamweaver has a similar option, but with more browsers.In short what is needed, to have DW/MS-Expressions to have proper code-hinting, variable scoping etc etc. I wish someone would do it.

Justin 2010-02-04 00:51:00

Try CS5 actually, it fixes the issues you had with CS4, and it improves the live view a lot.

Virgil 2010-05-17 12:47:58

ansaurus

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