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I'm developing PHP apps that leverage several frameworks (though not the Zend Framework yet...) and I make good use of Javascript (mostly jQuery). All mark-up is XHTML, of course, with CSS, etc. I'm looking to move beyond the beautiful simplicity of Notepad++. I'm using Windows Vista. I'm trying to decide between Zend Studio 7 or Dreamweaver CS4.
They seem pretty on par with each other, but the price points are different. I've seen a few lists of "Good things about Dreamweaver" or "Good things about Zend Studio" but I've yet to find a head-to-head comparison.
Any suggestions on the next IDE to move up to? In addition to the language support and basic error checking (syntax-related, like missing semi-colons or something), I'm looking for two things that are absolutely necessary:
"Projects" or something similar --
open a project and it gives a tree
listing of all related files
beneath. I'm pretty sure both
support this.
As lightweight as possible. Vista's a hog as it is,
and I'd like to have a lightweight
enough IDE that having 10 files open
and moving between them won't drain
my resources.
Other niceties:
Automatic documentation (not sure
what the phrase is, the stuff in
comments above functions with the
#parm stuff).
Templating.
SVN
support.
FTP/File upload
capabilities.
... And, if Zend or Dreamweaver isn't the thing -- any suggestions about what is?
i would suggest Netbease IDE PHP 6.7.
In is free , not so huge like Zend Studio or Dreamweaver.
It has support for
Syntax-highlighting
Templates
PHP Unit
JQuery
Dojo
Code completion for JS / PHP / HTML
Version Control (SVN)
and much more..
Download Netbeans
I suggest try few open source alternatives
Eclipse PDT - Is very good for php but currently don't good support jquery.
Aptana - I build on top of Eclipse and has good support for JQuery. It also has page preview feature.
You can configure different debuggers to work with them like PDT, Zend, Xdebug... all of them can be configured easily.
Zned Studio is also build on top of Eclipse, I have never used that so I can't say anything about it.
I had the same question about year ago. From then I tried many different IDE environments and a found that the most suited one was Netbeans.
The deal with Netbeans was that due to some performance issues it was the solidest IDE there.
As sad as it may be, from my perspective it is much better product than the Zend Studio For Eclipse 6 or 7 witch costs about 400$, (trust me I tried it since I unfortunately wasted the money on licence before I actually tested all available options).
It has the best code completion inspection and assistance, witch you can check yourself by downloading these two IDE-s and trying to code complete chaining method calls.
Support for unit testing is also something worth mentioning since it works. ZDE also has that feature but it is not that stable since sometimes it wont run.
JavaScript support is also solid, actually I think that is better than one in the Aptana, but the only downside of it is that is pretty slow when working with huge libraries such as Dojo. Now some may argue about that but the fact is that (at least with Dojo&dijit) library it has the best code inspection, and fine code completion support.
My opinion is that the only downside is the lack of support for Zend Debugger, and not so intuitive debugging variable, callstack and breakpoint windows.
For now my felling is that this is the best PHP IDE available, something like the Zend Studio 5.5 when it came out.
Netbeans is the clear choice here as long as you aren't limited on memory. It's got a good-sized footprint, but there's no product that can compare...not even Zend.
That being said, the new Aptana 3 was supposed to bring back full-fledged PHP support that was removed from Aptana 2+ (PDT just isn't a good plugin folks), but now that Appcelerator has taken over Aptana I'm a bit skeptical that the focus toward PHP will continue.
Yes Aptana Studio is good for PHP and also Netbeans. I like Netbeans more because it feels more solid. But Aptana has propably the best auto-complete support for javascript of all editors, but I don't really like the appearance of the editor - looks too 'macish'.
I would recommend both actually, side by side as each has its strengths and weaknesses
Zend Studio is excellent for:
PHP class coding enables you to view and browse class hierarchies, provides autocomplete, one click access to PHP Manual
unit testing
debugging
profiling
version control integration
Dreamweaver CS4 for
HTML coding
CSS editing
Other visual design
To me, I still have that impression of Dreamweaver being drag and drop for web "designers" and creating horrible html output that does that validate sometimes. If this still happens with DW CS4, then I would definitely go with Zend Studio.
Zend Studio actually supports with all the Eclipse Plugins that I would like to add for unit testing and continuous integration.
But Aptana and NetBeans are free!!! Which I think Zend editor is not, haven't tried that. I like Netbeans!!! I like Dreamweaver CS4 and use it on daily basis at my job(but not coding php). It's quite nice but I feel it's strength is the help you get with css properties. Besides that it's not better than Netbeans. if you like a shiny cool look like DW so go for Aptana, it has the best javascript autocompletion - really cool!! Saves a ton of time!! Even auto-completion for your JQuery code and other JS frameworks I think.
Actually Dreamweaver has become more of a dev tool (but I'm not entirely convinced of that). It has integration with Subversion which is kind of cool.
I like NetBeans because I've done some Java coding in it before and now it has support for PHP which is real nice, and it feels like a real dev. IDE.
But DW has this cool gray colors..
Is there any truth to the rumor that Visual Studio 2010 will natively support PHP coding?
(http://www.codeplex.com/php4vs)
If not,what are the options?(except VS.php)
Visual Studio 2010 won't have native PHP support. However, it's "relatively easy" to add some language support to Visual Studio 2010. If all you want is syntax highlighting, auto comment/uncomment, and brace matching, it could be done in one sitting by someone who knows how the new extensibility model works.
After you wrote this post, I started making an add-in to show you what I mean. I downloaded the WordPress source only to note that the .php extension is registered with Expression Web 3, which does support PHP (first image).
My 15 minute attempt at an extension (second image) is not as impressive, but keep in mind I started working on it after I answered this question. Edit: Updated to color keywords/global functions/global objects separately.
(source: 280z28.org)
(source: 280z28.org)
Check out CodeLobster php, it's free and has a very similar look and feel to visual studio plus it has IntelliSense and debugging support.
I would recommend PHP Tools for Visual Studio - new PHP integration for VS2010 and VS11.
syntax highlighting
IntelliSense (tooltip, function assist, code completion, go to definition,...)
code navigation
custom file extensions
integrated documentation
Its basic features are free, it is fast and stable (preferred for me)
As far as large projects, VS.Php 2.7 improved quite a bit in handling large projects (10000+ files)
Give it a try and let me know,
Juan
www.jcxsoftware.com
It is not true that VS 2010 will natively support Php.
AFAIK the only options are vs.php and vs.php. ;)
One of my projects has over 30,000 files, that includes however images and other items, in total about 12,000 php and js scripts, VS.php looked at it and barfed. Back to netbeans for now. Netbeans is amazing in what it does including the js support but I HATE java based apps. They are way too slow and fat.
Visual Studio has various types of support for PHP through the links, tools, and projects listed here but not "native" support (meaning install just Visual Studio and be able to create PHP projectsa and websites).
WebMatrix, another Microsoft product (free) does have native support. You can install it via the Web Platform Installer and immediately start building PHP sites from scratch or install various PHP 3rd party solutions like WordPress, Drupal, etc.
WebMatrix also has pretty good support for MySQL (via the MySQL->Net connector, installable through the web platform installer, just search for MySQL in the Web PI tool). You cannot create new databases from within WebMatrix but you can create and edit tables and data once the database is created (just create the database through the mysql.exe command line).
You can use PHP tools for Visual Studio:
PHP Tools for Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013
the best solution for true php projects whether small or large is "Zend Studio".
Just use Komodo, they have both free and commercial IDE
komodo is the best multi platform free version out there...
phpDesigner7 was the best solution for PHP
There is PHP Language Support, created by Sam Harwell. It has basic editing features for the PHP scripting language.
According to it's Visual Studio Gallery page, current editing features include:
Syntax highlighting, including support for HTML code outside PHP tags and within documentation comments
Outlining support for quickly collapsing classes and functions
Dropdown bars listing classes and functions within the current document
This extension has a relatively small feature set, but it's quite fast and usable. It was created as part of an experiment to provide editor features for multiple languages within a single document (PHP, HTML, and formatted documentation comments).
You could use Dreamweaver. It has codehinting, dynamic error detection in code, support for most languages used on the web, support for css, html5 etc.
Need your suggestion on php/mysql software. I develop PHP websites using Dreamweaver, I also have to use phpmyadmin, sql query editor (to work with database) and WinSCP (to upload/backup files over SFTP).
Could you suggest me please some software which contains all in one (PHP syntax highlighting, db connections and running sql queries, etc..)?
Thanks in advance.
Netbeans has PHP highlighting, code completition, db manager and ftp/sftp + xdebug (your next step:) ) support.
Try Eclipse. Go here: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ it is the third one down in the list (platforms on the right). You can connect to DB's, have intelli-sense (code completion) and more all for FREE!
Have you looked at Zend Studio?
If you don't want to spend as much as Zend Studio ($399 one year) try Aptana Studio. It is free and for $99 you get the Pro version with extra features like SFTP support.
There is a stand-alone version and an Eclipse plugin.
When I'm forced to use Windows, JEdit is my editor of choice. It has syntax highlighting for almost any language, FTP/SFTP remote editing, SQL plugins, code completion plugins, and so many others that I can't even begin to list them.
And, it's FOSS!
You can find the JEdit project at http://www.jedit.org
Your question is correctly tagged - you need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)! Dreamweaver wants to be one but unfortunately it isn't.
If you're on a Mac I highly recommend Coda.
For any platform; I've had a great experience with Aptana (a fork of Eclipse) and these open-source IDEs are just bursting with useful plugins. Even Aptana's default project templates were useful instead of fluff!
One guy in my team loves NetBeans to bits.
Right now I'm addicted to shelling into the server and using command-line tools like vi or nano, svn, mysql. A steep (and important) learning curve but everything is possible on the command line. And with minimal client requirements. Do anything from anywhere!
I think the true answer is subjective - you'll need to dive in and try each one to see how they fit your working style.
Hope that helps!
My personal favorite text editor: e texteditor which a clone of a mac app called textmate.
There is a lot of support for many languages, although Zend Studio will give you more "integration" features.
I'd like to try out Eclipse, but I'm a bit baffled with all the different distributions of it. I mainly program in Python doing web development, but I also need to maintain PHP and Perl apps. It looks like EasyEclipse is a bit behind. Should I just grab the base Eclipse and start loading plug-ins?
Maybe try Aptana (http://www.aptana.com/) - you can then plug in as many extra modules as you require.
PDT 2.0 is vey good Eclipse PHP Ide . It is created with cooperation with Zend, so there a lot of featuers from Zend Studio.
I also use it with Subeclipse(for SVN) and Target Management (for work on FTP remotely).
I will also advice to use Aptana plugins fot HTML and Js - they are much better than standard Web Tools from Eclipse.
I develop Python applications at work and find Eclipse Classic and Eclipse for Java Devs a good fit because I don't do any plugin or Java EE Stuff. We use Eclipse for Java, Python, and NSIS (nullsoft installer) scripting.
The Python development I do requires the pydev plugin (see: http://pydev.sourceforge.net/) which so far has been fantastic on a Windows machine. I found some instability on a Fedora 9 machine, but that is not the general consensus among my linuxier colleagues :)
The pydev plugin comes with a very minimal set of customizable features including a short list of syntax for colouring, and it's very easy to create a dark colour scheme (black bg, bright text) for python development (if that matters to you). The debugger has been pretty good so far, but I have problems when my applications hit threading in PyQt. I don't know if that is a problem with QThread (a Qt Thread) or python threads in general.
I can't offer any advice regarding PERL or PHP but basically like you said, download an Eclipse version and find some good plugins for your development environment.
PyDev is pretty decent as I'm sure you know. It can fit on top of all the Eclipse distributions (provided they meet the minimum version requirements). If you're doing webdev stuff, you'll probably find the closest fit with Aptana.
That said, I find Aptana hideously clunky when compared to a decent text editor. I build sites using django and for that I use Eclipse (pure) and PyDev to do the python and gedit (gnome's souped up notepad) for writing the HTML for templates/CSS/JS/etc.
At the end of the day, whatever suits you best is what you'll go with.
EPIC is the only Eclipse Perl plugin I know for Perl.
The integration is okay. Offers a graphical debugger, but watch out for inspecting data that contains cycles, as the perl exec could just go into an infinite loop
I develop in PHP, python, C(python modules), SQL and JS/HTML/CSS all on eclipse. I do this
by installing PDT, CDT, pydev and SQL tools onto the eclipse-platform, and then using different workspaces for mixed projects.
Two workspaces to be specific, one for PHP web development and another for Python/C. I do run it on a rather powerful machine so I allow eclipse the luxury of added memory (2G).
Works like a charm and it is very nice to be able to use the same IDE for everything :)
I use the javascript eclipse helios and added pydev plugin to it for django support it seems to do everything I need.
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I'm a PHP developer and now I use Notepad++ for code editing, but lately I've been searching for an IDE to ease my work.
I've looked into Eclipse, Aptana Studio and several others, but I'm not really decided, they all look nice enough but a bit complicated. I'm sure it'll all get easy once I get used to it, but I don't want to waste my time.
This is what I'm looking for:
FTP support
Code highlight
SVN support would be great
Ruby and JavaScript would be great
For PHP I would recommend PhpStorm.
It supports FTP/SFTP synchronization, integrates well with Subversion, CVS, Mercurial and even with Git. Also, it supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript and handles language-mixing well like SQL or HTML blocks inside PHP code, JSON, etc.
But if you need Ruby you can try another IDE - RubyMine with same capabilities but for Ruby.
NetBeans. Check out 7.0.1.
It supports FTP/SFTP synchronization, integrates well with Subversion, CVS, Mercurial and even with Git (with plugin). Also, it supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, popular frameworks and more.
And its free.
Too bad no one mentioned phpDesigner. It's really the best IDE I've came across (and I believe I've tried them all).
The main pro of this one is that it's NOT Java based. This keeps the whole thing quick.
Features:
Intelligent Syntax Highlighter - automatic switch between PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript depending on your position!
PHP (both version 4 and 5 are supported)
SQL (MySQL, MSSQL 2000, MSSQL 7, Ingres, Interbase 6, Oracle, Sybase)
HTML/XHTML
CSS (both version 1 and 2.1 are supported)
JavaScript
VBScript
Java
C#
Perl
Python
Ruby
Smarty
PHP:
Support for both PHP 4 and PHP 5
Code Explorer for PHP (includes, classes, extended classes, interfaces, properties, functions, constants and variables)
Code Completion (IntelliSense) for PHP - code assist as you type
Code Tip (code hint) for PHP - code assist as you type
Work with any PHP frameworks (access classes, functions, variables, etc. on the fly)
PHP object oriented programming (OOP) including nested objects
Support for PHP heredoc
Enclose strings with single- or double quotes, linefeed, carriage return or tabs
PHP server variables
PHP statement templates (if, else, then, while…)
Powerful PHP Code Beautifier with many configurations and profile support
phpDocumentor wizard
Add phpDocumentor documentation to functions and classes with one click!
phpDocumentor tags
Comment or uncomment with one click!
Jump to any declaration with filtering by classes, interfaces, functions, variables or constants
Debug (PHP):
Debug with Xdebug
Breakpoints
Step by step debugging
Step into
Step over
Run to cursor
Run until return
Call stack
Watches
Context variables
Evaluate
Profiling
Multiple sessions
Evaluation tip
Catch errors
Are you sure you're looking for an IDE? The features you're describing, along with the impression of being too complicated that you got from e.g. Aptana, suggest that perhaps all you really want is a good editor with syntax highlighting and integration with some common workflow tools. For this, there are tons of options.
I've used jEdit on several platforms successfully, and that alone puts it above most of the rest (many of the IDEs are cross-platform too, but Aptana and anything Eclipse-based is going to be pretty heavy-weight, if full-featured). jEdit has ready-made plugins for everything on your list, and syntax highlighting for a wide range of languages. You can also bring up a shell in the bottom of your window, invoke scripts from within the editor, and so forth. It's not perfect (the UI is better than most Java UIs, but not perfect yet I don't think), but I've had good luck with it, and it'll be a hell of a lot simpler than Aptana/Eclipse.
That said, I do like Aptana quite a bit for web development, it does a lot of the grunt work for you once you're over the learning curve.
Eclipse PDT is very nice.
I'm always amazed that more people don't use ActiveState Komodo.
It has the best debugging facilities of any PHP IDE I have tried, is a very mature product and has more useful features than you can shake a stick at. Of note, it has a fantastic HTTP inspector, Javascript debugger and Regular Expression Toolkit. You can get it so that it steps through your PHP, then you see your Javascript running, and then see your HTTP traffic going out over the wire!
It also comes in free (Komodo Edit) and open (OpenKomodo versions).
Oh, and if you don't always hack just on PHP, it's designed as a multi-language editor and rocks for Ruby and Python too.
I've been a happy customer for around 5 years.
There's no "best" IDE, only better and worse ones.
Right now I'm trying to settle in with Aptana. It has a lot of cruft that I don't want, like "Jaxer" doodads all over the place. It's reasonably fast, but chokes on large files when syntax highliting is on. I have not been able to figure out how to set up PHP debugging. Three good things about Aptana: easy plugin installations, very fast and intuitive Subversion plugins, ligning fast file search.
I tried Eclipse PDT and Zend for Eclipse, but they have nightmare levels of interface cruft. Installing plugins is a living horror of version mismatches and cryptic error messages.
I also use Komodo (they bought us licenses at work). Komodo has a very intuitive interface, but is ridiculously slow, chokes on medium sized files with syntax highlighting. File search is intuitive, but rather slow. Subversion integration is not that great - slow and buggy. If not for slowness, I would have probably stuck with Komodo, especially for the debugger.
To get you started, here is a list of PHP Editors (Wikipedia).
For PHP in particular, PHPEdit is the best, and I tried and worked in some of them including, Dreamweaver, Elipse, Emacs, Notepad++, NetBeans, UltraEdit ...
Geany is a great lightweight editor -- like Notepad++ for Linux, only better. I find this, combined with a few shell scripts and symlinks for linking modules into a web source tree, make developing on Linux easy and fun.
I love JetBrains IDEs. For PHP it is JetBrains PHPStorm.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-php-ide/index.html
Personally, I love Notepad++... :D . The above link compares some of the better IDEs and the best ones aren't free.
I'd recommend Komodo 4.4 though (I used the trial version) since it was awesome. Better than Notepad++, but not free... :(
I would recommend Zend IDE for the integrated debugger.
I'm using Zend Studio. It has decent syntax highlighting, code completion and such. But the best part is that you can debug PHP code, either with a standalone PHP interpreter, or even on a live web server as you "browse" along your pages. You get the usual Visual Studio keys, breakpoints, watches and call stack, which is almost indispensable for bug hunting. No more "alert()"-cluttered debugged source code :)
Have you looked at Delphi for PHP (<http://www.codegear.com/products/delphi/php>) ?
Joe Stagner of Microsoft really likes Delphi for PHP.
He says it here: "[Delphi for PHP] 2.0 is the REAL DEAL and I LOVE IT !"
Eclipse with PDT.
I use and like Rapid PHP.
What features of an IDE do you want? Integrated build engine? Debugger? Code highlighting? IntelliSense? Project management? Configuration management? Testing tools? Except for code highlighting, none of these are in your requirements.
So my suggestion is to use an editor that supports plugins, like Notepad++ (which you are already used to). If there's not already a plugin that does what you want, then write one.
I use Coda on Mac OS X.
There is a new guy in town, PhpStorm from JetBrains. You use it and I bet you will forget all the other editors. It's bit pricey though, unfortunately.
RadPHP (previously known as Delphi for PHP) is the best.
All are good, but only Delphi for PHP (RadPHP 3.0) has a designer, drag and drop controls, GUI editeor, huge set of components including Zend Framework, Facebook, database, etc. components. It is the best in town.
RadPHP is the best of all; It has all the features the others have. Its designer is the best of all. You can design your page just like Dreamweaver (more than Dreamweaver).
If you use RadPHP you will feel like using ASP.NET with Visual Studio (but the language is PHP).
It's too bad only a few know about this.
Aptana supports this and I use it for all of my web development now.
Hands down the best IDE for PHP is NuSphere PHPEd. It's a no contest. It is so good that I use WINE to run it on my Mac. PHPEd has an awesome debugger built into it that can be used with their local webserver (totally automatic) or you can just install the dbg module for XAMPP or any other Apache you want to run.
The best IDE for PHP in my opinion is Zend Studio (which itself is based on Eclipse PDT). Note that in this case "best" does not necessarily mean "good." It is slow and a bit buggy, but even so, it's still the best option for PHP programmers. I've tried a ton of PHP editors over the years and I haven't yet found one that works great.
Komodo IDE would be my second choice. My only problem with Komodo is that the autocomplete is not as good. With properly structured apps where you use phpDoc to document return types etc., it should be alright. But I work on a project that doesn't really do that and Komodo can't read across files to know that $user is a User object for example.
Personally everything that is based uppon Eclipse or NetBeans is an overkill, the GUI is crap and the performance is soooo slow compared to other alternatives.
If you're willing to pay I would suggest Zend IDE (version 5.5, not 6 because it's based on Eclipse) and EditPlus for a more lightweight yet powerfull code editor.
If you're looking for free alternatives, or if you code in other languages other than PHP, OpenKomodo is a really nice IDE with almost all the features (no SVN neither CVS) that you require, the only con I see about OpenKomodo is that sometimes it messes my code indentation, but then again I don't use it on a very regular basis.
As for a free lightweight alternative: Notepad++. =)
My personal preference is Eclipse (with various plug-ins) as I am developing in several languages (PHP, Java, and Ruby) and this way I am always used to interface and keyboard shortcuts. This is not a minor thing as you become very productive this way.
I haven't used Aptana, but will (hopefully) soon - it does look interesting, though.
For others IDEs I have used: jEdit (for little Java), Notepad++ (still for some scripting and short test code runs).
And for the features You asked: Eclipse support many source code version servers (Subclipse); your project can be on a Samba share; ZendDebugger/xdebug for debugging.
I've tried Eclipse PDT, with some success. Aptana is also pretty good, or if you are doing a lot of AJAX stuff, it's great. Your mileage may vary, however, depending on what additional plugins you want to use with them.
PHPEclipse is as close to Eclipse java power as it could get. Eclipse PDT is much weaker (last time I checked).
I'm using PHPDesigner but I will go for Eclipse PDT. I was always against Eclipse until few months ago when I have one Java project to finish... Great IDE
Now I can't imagine one day without Eclipse. :)
Have you tried NetBeans 6? Zend Studio and NetBeans 6 are the best IDEs with PHP support you'll come across and NetBeans is free.