Which is the best PHP IDE?

Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Vu Hung -
Number of replies: 25

Hi all,

I'm customsing and developing some PHP-based applications (including Moodlesmile). As you know, a good IDE helps use write productive codes and reduce much our time (A programmer is only as good as his toolssmile).

Personally, I think PHP IDEs are rather limited in comparison with other IDEs of other languages such as Java (JBuilder, Java Studio Creator, etc), .NET(Visual Studio Net).

I tested some PHP-IDEs: PHP Edit, DevPHP, Dreamweaver, PHPEclipse. PHPEdit seems better but it's a commercial product.

Could you share your experiences of PHP IDEs? (I guess many Moodlers know good PHP IDEs because Moodle is PHP-basedsmile)

Thanks,

Vu Hung  

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Mike Churchward -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
I still use Eclipse (with PHPEclipse extensions). Its a good, developing IDE. It can be a little harsh on computing resources sometimes (I think because its written in Java), but generally a good environment. Its Open Source and free.

mike
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Timothy Takemoto -

I have this java phobia. There is something about the way it moves.
How abou php designer 2005
http://tinyurl.com/dhmp3
You need php to be installed, but we all have XAMP or EasyPHP.
Tim

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Vu Hung -

That's a good one, Timothy. I wish if it had PHPDoc generating feature.

Thanks!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Timothy Takemoto -

> I wish it had PHPDoc generating feature.
I don't know what this means! I am not a php programmer, only a minor hacker.

What php IDE are you using, Martin Dougiamas? How about Eloy/Stronk7, Gustav, Howard, Penny, Petr, Zbigniew, Jon, Martin, Shane, Tony, Thomas, Gordon, Bernard, and everyone?

I am so silly I don't know how to use the IDE. I debug and it says there are functions that are not found because they are elsewhere. I don't know how to load all the Moodle php files into the project.

Timothy

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Darren Smith -
It would appear that text editors are popular!

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=22018
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Vu Hung -
If most of main developers of Moodle use only text editors for programming PHP, it's a big surprise. They are very hard-working in coding smile.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Petr Skoda -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
This topic was discussed recently here.

It seems nobody likes the IDEs big grin
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Tony Hursh -
I don't know if I'm the Tony you meant, being very small player in the Moodle world, but I'm an emacs man tried and true. smile


By the way, the Mindlube build of emacs breaks under OS X Tiger. There's a very small patch on the Mindlube site that fixes it, if you don't mind rebuilding emacs from source. The patch worked great on my machine.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Tony Hursh

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Timothy Takemoto -
Yes, it was you Tony Hursh. You are big as far as I am concerned! Thanks for the advice but I am a windower.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Vu,

The one that I prefer is https://netbeans.org/ It's free and open source, is relatively lightweight for what it does, has loads of plugins available, and has all the useful, time saving features you'd expect from an IDE:

  • GIT built in and it just works and connecting to remote repositories is simple and easy (core Moodle and most plugins use GIT and are hosted on https://github.com/)
  • Finds instances of function calls and definitions throughout an entire project (a life-saver when working with Moodle)
  • Good project management (although loading Moodle into it will put some strain on your computer)
  • Great support for HTML5, CSS3, and JS
  • Integration with localhost development server environments
  • Integration with Firefox and Chrome for debugging
  • Support for loads of languages and frameworks (some built in and some via plugins)
  • Spell-checker
  • Code highlighting, auto-complete, and code suggestions (also works with Moodle functions)
  • Code snippets and auto-code commenting on functions
  • Built in language documentation and parameter lists

More details here: https://netbeans.org/community/releases/80/

On the downside, support for Python programming seems to have stopped.

I hope this helps! smile

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Guillermo Madero -

"Ancient posts, come forth!"

Average of ratings: Coolest thing ever! (1)
In reply to Guillermo Madero

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Jez H -

I think the term is "necro", elsewhere such resurrections are preceeded by the line "sorry for the necro but..." dead

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Jez H -

We use http://www.aptana.com/ and http://bitbucket.org/

Aptana is built on eclipse but pre-packed for PHP with GIT extensions, minimal fuss to setup, runs ok on Windows and Linux.

BitBucket is free for academic use (unlimited private repo's & users, I dont think I even had to ask for that, they just didit based on email suffix), has a nice interface and a few nice features.

http://notepad-plus-plus.org is also very useful 

As are these FF extensions:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/live-http-headers/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firebug/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/colorzilla/

Average of ratings: Coolest thing ever! (1)
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Andrew Normore -

Notepad++ is my favorite. 

Opens any code file, formatting is GREAT. 

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

It's FREE.

Average of ratings: Very cool (1)
In reply to Andrew Normore

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Jez & Andrew,

Notepad++ is a great text editor for Windows with great support for various programming languages but it isn't an IDE. An IDE does a whole lot more than edit text.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Guillermo Madero -

Yes, quite a lot much more... maybe too much more, at least for some of us and that explains why some are just happy with a decent text editor tongueout But of course, I don't do big time programming as I used to big grin

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Guillermo Madero

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Andrew Normore -
I agree with "too much more". Depends on your personality.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andrew Normore

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Guillermo Madero -

Indeed! My "IDE" is basically a text editor and the Windows Explorer (I'll be stigmatized for having said this, but to me this is the basic reason for not upgrading to Windows 7 --let alone 8-- big grin), though I have and use tools like FreeFileSync, DiffMerge, Duplicate Cleaner, Fossil and such, including Winamp (a good music player is always a must smile).

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Guillermo Madero

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

OK, here's a use case scenario: A PHP developer is new to Moodle. Moodle's code is poorly documented. The inline comments are often uninformative and unhelpful. This isn't unusual in software projects.

How code comments are often written:

typing chimp

A text editor and keyword searches alone aren't much help. You need an IDE that can find function, constant, and variable definitions, that are often buried in files and folders somewhere among 1,000's of other files and folders, and tell you what parameters they require and/or what data types they should be, e.g. int, string, array, or object.

How much time have you spent searching through code and looking for missing documentation when working with unfamiliar code bases?

You also spend less time on debugging silly mistakes like uneven numbers of opening and closing brackets or them opening and closing in the wrong places. A good IDE will subtly bring these to your attention while you're typing.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Guillermo Madero -

Hello Matt,

While I definitely agree with the concept and use of an IDE, I also think it's good to let people know about other simpler options. For those who are just starting coding or that are working on small projects of their own (like I'm currently doing), an IDE might be overkill; I sure know this from experience, more than once I did try working with one but it was really too much. I guess that in my particular case it all comes down to my background as I started in an era where "Visuals", "API", "IDE", "OOP" and so many other programming aids and concepts were maybe just in someone's imagination. Even when working on very large unfamiliar projects, all we had was a text terminal with a regular keyboard, a text editor, a compiler, lots and lots and lots of voluminous manuals for everything, from the OS to the programming language, but of course, except for the system itself --rarely were there any good specs-- and a great passion for the job. So, I'd say that in a great measure it is as Andrew said, depends on one's personality... among many other factors smile

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Guillermo Madero

Re: Which is the best PHP IDE?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Everthing is mentioned but one: Vim the editor!

7 Habits For Effective Text Editing 2.0
by Bram Moolenaar
Google Tech Talks
February 13, 2007

ABSTRACT
A large percentage of time behind the computer screen is spent on editing text. Investing a little time in learning more efficient ways to use a text editor pays itself back fairly quickly. This presentation will give an overview of the large number of ways of using Vim in a smart way to edit programs, structured text and documentation. Examples will be used to make clear how learning a limited number of habits will avoid wasting time and lower the number of mistakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?foo=bar&v=eX9m3g5J-XA

Warning: 1 hour 20 min - talk 42 m then Q&A. If you feel that this is a wastage of your precious time, don't make me responsible!
Average of ratings: -