IDE for PHP with Visual Designer?

Question

Im new to PHP..I commonly see online that many PHP developers like to code php in simple notepad.. however its always nice to use an IDE which helps the user being more productive by making fewer mistakes and writing good code. My Question is "WHICH IS THE BEST IDE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN PHP?"

Im looking for a PHP IDE which provides good:-

1.Code Completion 2.Syntax and error highlighting 3.Debugging 4.HTML visual designer (Design View)

For me its important to have a visual designer in an IDE. various IDE's dont have this, such as Netbeans.. Also is there any way to develop PHP applications in Visual Studio? (without/with using VS add-on)

Answer 1

For designing, you can use Dreamweaver, etc and then later embedd PHP code OR directly use one of these:

1. Eclipse
2. Microsoft Expression Studio
3. VS.PHP

For debugging: Use xDebug

However, I still prefer Notepad++ (it has code completion).

Answer 2

If you are looking for an editor to just do HTML, CSS, and Javascript then I would start with Adobe Dreamweaver. I know that people complain that it can be a resource hoag but you can't beat it's WYSIWYG, HTML, and CSS features. I would then use Firebug in addition to Dreamweaver to debug the Javascript.

If you want to get into dynamic web development with PHP, Ruby, Python, etc. then I would use an editor like Komodo or Textmate.

Visual Studio is great and it has a lot of the same HTML and CSS features that Dreamweaver has but if you are not doing ASP.NET development then I don't see a reason to use it.

While I have used all the tools I mentioned, I always go back to VIM because I prefer to stay close to the metal without a big IDE because it forces me to really understand the code and to keep it clean and maintainable.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/140707/web-development-ide-suggestions -markkoberlein

Answer 3

I user PHPEdit and netbeans.

About your requests:

My experience with ide:s is that almost every ide out there is realy good but they allmoust allways lack in som functionality.

For instance: PHPEdit is the only ide that has good support for sitedebugging with xdebug in a natural and funktioal way. Netbeans also works with xdebug but has problems with handle showing variable values inside the ide.

My point is that it often is best to try out as many ide:s as you can and feel them out.

In my little php-world, debugging rules so i use PHPEdit. If you write to the company selling it you can get a personal lisence. It has worked well for me.

-- Happy coding!

p.s. I just now tryed phpStorm. I think is a great ide and ther's also a personal lisence for opensource projects d.s.

Answer 4

First of all,, I dont like to say "I prefer Notepad". It is just a lie and foolishness. Notepad is good for students who want to learn very basic. For an experienced programmer, it is wasting of time like saying MSDOS is better than Windows7 . :D

In my line of work, I have used Eclipse, NuSphere phpED, Netbeans, Dreamveawer, PHPDesigner, PSPad, UltraEdit and Notepad as well. Among them Dreamveawer has the Visual Designer but for PHP I dont like it much. Eclipse, Netbeans, PHPDesigner and NuSphere phpED are my best choice for PHP coding. I like the code completion feature of them.

I suggest, you can do the design part with Dreamveawer (DV is best for Visual Designing for me). Then you can use another IDE for PHP Coding.

Eclipse & Netbeans are both doing a nice job and are free. :)

Answer 5

Thank you everybody for sharing your point of views..I find all of the suggestions helpful here. For PHP, it seems like I will have to test various IDEs and use them accordingly to the situation.

Thanks :D

Answer 6

Expression Web 4 isn't the most robust for PHP, but it's got the HTML and CSS (visually) down pretty well. Doesn't have the "Live View" of DW though.

I completely recommend you try PHPStorm. It doesn't have the visual features of DW but it excels in PHP. Debugging is easy to set up. It does language injection (autocompleting HTML in PHP statement, for example) which almost no other IDE does. It pretty light on it's feet, and is very extensible.