What is your PHP development environment configuration?

Question

Hello,

I've found some resources here about what is the best IDE for PHP. But they don't have a answer for my question. I would like to find an answer how to create rich and functional development environment configuration to create PHP web apps.

What I think would be necessary to gain power in this area is:

• Code Completition
• Syntax hinghlight
• Syntax check
• Debugging
• Easy move project to production machine
• Support for unit testing
• Support for SVN
• Support for refactoring code and navigating between methods

Could you please tell me what is your configuration and what is the best way to create PHP development environment for real world PHP website?

Answer 1

Eclipse PDT

Answer 2

We use virtual hosts on apache so we can share the same server and php config, and then we test our working copy by going to http://devserver.theman/code . Im not saying this is the best solution.

Answer 3

You should try out these and pick the one you like the most -

• Dreamweaver
• ActiveState Komodo
• Zend Studio
• PHPEclipse - since its eclipse based u can add plugins for your other needs.

If you are still confused or I confused you even more go here for comparison

Answer 4

So I use Eclipse PDT 2.0 which was released last week. It gives you much of what you are looking for including:

• Code Completition
• Syntax hinghlight
• Syntax check
• Debugging (I use Xdebug)
• Support for SVN
• Support for navigating between methods

As for moving a project to a production machine I use ANT but many PHP developers like Phing.

There is no real Code Refactoring in PDT.

Finally for unit testing I use PHPUnit.

Answer 5

I love Visual Studio, so when I do PHP development, I use Visual Studio with the VS.PHP plugin (http://www.jcxsoftware.com/vs.php). It costs $99, but is well worth it if you like Visual Studio.

Answer 6

I use gVim for most of that. The only item on the list I haven't configured it to do is the unit testing support (though I do have it configured to automatically run unit tests, if that counts). SVN, moving to production environment, syntax highlighting/checking, and debugging are all pretty easy to set up. Once you get used to the commands in vi, I think it's a very efficient editing environment. You just need to configure the heck out of it; it doesn't come stock with the settings you'd need.

Answer 7

It sounds like to me you're basically looking of the equivlient of Visual Studio but for PHP. The closet I've found is phpDesigner, which is a great IDE that most people never mention in PHP ide discussion.

phpDesigner has stellar and fast syntax checking, and it's fully configurable. It also supports debugging packages (included) so you have even do step-by-step debugging.

Answer 8

Eclipse PDT + Subeclipse + Xdebug

Answer 9

If you are developing on a Mac, although not a true IDE, BBEdit is a great environment for PHP (and many other languages too).

Answer 10

I use the Intype text editor, Toad for MySQL Freeware (this is a brilliant tool, and it's proper freeware now, not get-a-new-trial-license-every-so-often-ware) and XAMPP Lite.

Answer 11

You may want to try out nWire for PHP.

nWire for PHP is an innovative Eclipse plugin (works with Eclipse PDT & Zend Studio 7) which accelerates PHP development by helping developers navigate through their code and better understand the architecture of their application. nWire offers unique tools for:

• Interactive code visualization
• Code Navigation - navigate your code by associations
• Search as you type for files, classes, methods, fields, etc.

Answer 12

Emacs and the command line gives me everything I need.