The Best PHP IDE for Windows
I am always on the lookout for good IDEs, including the ones for PHP. There are several decent ones on the market. From the open-source ones, Eclipse with PDT does a decent job, for local development, if you do not mind extra weight of a JDK-based IDE. It has some other issues as well (poor support of on-the-server development via SFTP and forcing the use of pre-configured projects are a few), but Eclipse is not what we'd like to discuss in this post, today.
Today I stumbled upon a new (for me) Windows-based, PHP IDE: EngInSite PHP IDE and I was, quite frankly, blown away! EngInSite is, quite simply, the best PHP IDE on a Windows platform. I have been playing around with it for a couple hours now and I have to yet find a feature I would like that it does not have. It's a very rare example of a perfect tool.
Few important features from the long list of this IDE's capabilities:
- File Navigator (display of a file's structure as a tree: functions, objects, variables)
- Wonderfully implemented SFTP Support
- Support for projects but no need to create a project. Folder view supported (useful for remote projects).
- SVN support, CVS support, Diff support.
- CSS/HTML/etc support.
- PHP integration (embedded and/or external) and debugging. Support for both PHP4 and PHP5 and easy switching.
- PHPDoc support
- Rich set of debugging features like IP Monitor, HTTP Request modeler etc.
- and many more...
Only two complains: I am very sad, personally, that it is not available for Macs and they really should create a much better website for such a nice product.
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Windows PHP IDE's
Hello, thanks for the interesting article. I've already been testing some PHP IDE's for Windows. The best ones I could find were PHP Designer 2007 and Zend Studio. I switched to Ubuntu a few months ago and now I primarily use Zend Studio Neon, which I can only use until the end of this year when the license expires. I've already thought about switching to PDT after the trial time, but I am still looking looking for a fast PHP IDE. Zend Studio Neon is built on top of PDT, so it performs quite poorly. I really hope you'll write more articles on this topic. Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Tim
PHPDesigner 2008
Just found your blog off Google. I am currently using PHPDesigner 2008 and it seems to be a very fast and stable IDE. It has support for HTML / CSS etc. Project management and whatnot. It's not a free program but I think it's worth the price. At least it's not based on Java right?
- Dwayne Charrington.
http://www.dwaynecharrigton.com
I use Zend Studio 5.5.1,
I use Zend Studio 5.5.1, it's very fast and stable.. but there is no CSS support
But watch out if you are using Apache
After reading your post, I downloaded the trial version of PHP Edit from EngInSite.com and gave it a whirl. I found it to be a disappointment! It comes with a very weak internal HTTP server that is probably IIS based. To cut a long story short, the program behaved like a bad citizen and broke my perfectly functional Apache/PHP/MySQL stack. I was no longer able to configure or use virtual hosts with Apache despite uninstalling, using system restore and even removing PHP Edit from EngInSite using ReVo. As we speak, I am restoring the system from a back up to have a functional stack again. It was also sad to see only posts from bots and trolls in their support forum, although their suggestions forum also provided some support. If you are using Apache, you should steer clear of EngInSite PHP Edit. And since PHP developers should really be using Apache, it is only logical that this is still a product to avoid. Their web site claims that Apache is now supported. In my experience, this could not have been further from the truth.
Without Apache?
I am sorry to hear about your trouble with the package.
I am not forced to use Windows at work, anymore (different employer) so I am a little behind, but from what I remember - installing the web-server was optional in Enginesite, no? I think they only require the installation of PHP, but you can opt-out from the Web server?
Is that correct?
Apache follow up
I tried to install keeping my Apache installation intact. Bottom line, it did not work, uninstalling PHP Editor did not help either. I rebuilt my system from a back up. Anyone wanting to try PHP Edit should really perform a backup first. The program did cause a system change that I could not define. Also, their support never responded.
Meanwhile, I tried the eval version of NuSphere's PhpED and I was so impressed that I purchased a license. It works seamlessly with my existing Apache/PHP/MySQL setup. I also use Dreamweaver alongside with PhpED and I could not be happier with the workflow. The debugger absolutely rocks. It comes with a Mozilla web browser that renders HTML/XHTML/CSS perfectly. Like Zend, they provide a full range of offerings including PHP encoding and optimizers and secure remote debugging via SSL. Version control with CVS is supported, and Subversion can also be used through a shell menu using TortoiseSVN (I do wish, however, that they had a better integrated support for Subversion). Their support staff and forums are both responsive and useful. In contrast, some of the forums at PHP Edit are only filled with postings from spam trolls.
My search for a PHP IDE is finally over!
Aptana
Hi, while I was reading your post to find a good PHP editor, I checked to see if my HTML/CSS/Javascript editor was also supporting PHP and it does. I cannot comment on the PHP portion of it yet but if it is as good as the other languages it supports, I will not be disappointed.
I have been using Aptana for
I have been using Aptana for long time .... it is the best among all that i have used do far ... I have used Homesite,DreamWeaver, Komodo PHP Designer....
There is plugin available for PHP...So this editor will be an option for PHP developers.. Ibet
:)
ues it has
Yes, Aptana has very good php editor extension. It is very close to Zend Studio Eclipse. Its debuggin, code assist, error highlighting and everything. Much better that Dreamweaver tha tcost $399
Aptana is just another
Aptana is just another rehash of Eclipse. I really dislike Eclipse, It's too FAT! It just loads slowly and handles like a bitch. VS.PHP is good since VS is generally incredibly easy to develop using. Eclipse, Zend, Aptana - pretty much the same thing, and it makes it really awkward to develop using.
Not good.
FREE PHP IDE
Hi.
Check also new free very nice PHP IDE - Codelobster PHP Edition
It has also Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and Smarty plug-ins.
Regards,
Stas.
EngineSite
Came across your article and downloaded and trialed EngineSite. It's pretty good, shame there is no Mac Version.
Coda
Mac has a much better editor for PHP development over SFTP: Panic's Coda :)
suggestion
Just installed NetBeans for PHP recently
It's the best ;)
Better then eclispe and more intuitive FTP/SFTP
Regards,
Alex
NotePad++
Great post BTW. I set up PHP on Eclipse on my Ubuntu 8.1x box, it's ok, Java is too slow. Probably get flamed for this, but on my Windows boxes (where I do the most development), I stand by NotePad++. I know, I know. It's not an IDE, but it does color code PHP, JavaScript, HTML (unlike vi or NotePad), plently of plug-ins, talk about light-wieght/ fast, and its FREE! FileZilla for FTP, thank you. So I'm old, but I just can't get into IDEs any more.
Sorry for the POV.
Notepad++ , FileZilla
I'm with you on Notepad++, but I think I'm going to give Netbeans a try. I think a low-level env. keeps your coding skills sharp. IDE-s do a lot of coding work these days and makes the coder miss the point of coding.
I agree, some of the IDE's
I agree, some of the IDE's I've seen do a lot of helpful code generation for you, but it ultimately means you end up learning the IDE instead of the programming language.
But this doesn't mean I'm against IDE's, I'm all for tools that help productivity. For me though, the best tool isn't one that generates tons of code for you, and all you have is a nice whizzy interface. No, for my purposes a PHP IDE should include syntax highlighting, templates, version control systems, and most importantly a fast code completion feature that picks up on classes, functions and variables within the scope of the current script, along with whatever documentation is bundled with the class/function being called.
TwistPad
I've been using TwistPad. It's super light weight but will ALL the functionality you'd expect. Check it out at:
http://www.carthagosoft.net/twistpad/index.htm