[ACCEPTED]-What is the best IDE for PHP?-ide

For PHP I would recommend PhpStorm.

It supports FTP/SFTP 6 synchronization, integrates well with Subversion, CVS, Mercurial and 5 even with Git. Also, it supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript 4 and handles language-mixing well like SQL 3 or HTML blocks inside PHP code, JSON, etc.

But 2 if you need Ruby you can try another IDE 1 - RubyMine with same capabilities but for Ruby.

NetBeans. Check out 7.0.1.

It supports FTP/SFTP 4 synchronization, integrates well with Subversion, CVS, Mercurial 3 and even with Git (with plugin). Also, it 2 supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, popular 1 frameworks and more.

And its free.

Too bad no one mentioned phpDesigner. It's really the 4 best IDE I've came across (and I believe 3 I've tried them all).

The main pro of this 2 one is that it's NOT Java based. This keeps 1 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 25 features you're describing, along with the 24 impression of being too complicated that 23 you got from e.g. Aptana, suggest that perhaps 22 all you really want is a good editor with 21 syntax highlighting and integration with 20 some common workflow tools. For this, there 19 are tons of options.

I've used jEdit on several 18 platforms successfully, and that alone puts 17 it above most of the rest (many of the IDEs 16 are cross-platform too, but Aptana and anything 15 Eclipse-based is going to be pretty heavy-weight, if 14 full-featured). jEdit has ready-made plugins 13 for everything on your list, and syntax 12 highlighting for a wide range of languages. You 11 can also bring up a shell in the bottom 10 of your window, invoke scripts from within 9 the editor, and so forth. It's not perfect 8 (the UI is better than most Java UIs, but 7 not perfect yet I don't think), but I've 6 had good luck with it, and it'll be a hell 5 of a lot simpler than Aptana/Eclipse.

That 4 said, I do like Aptana quite a bit for web 3 development, it does a lot of the grunt 2 work for you once you're over the learning 1 curve.

Eclipse PDT is very nice.

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I'm always amazed that more people don't 15 use ActiveState Komodo.

It has the best debugging facilities 14 of any PHP IDE I have tried, is a very mature 13 product and has more useful features than 12 you can shake a stick at. Of note, it has 11 a fantastic HTTP inspector, Javascript debugger 10 and Regular Expression Toolkit. You can 9 get it so that it steps through your PHP, then 8 you see your Javascript running, and then 7 see your HTTP traffic going out over the 6 wire!

It also comes in free (Komodo Edit) and 5 open (OpenKomodo versions).

Oh, and if you 4 don't always hack just on PHP, it's designed 3 as a multi-language editor and rocks for 2 Ruby and Python too.

I've been a happy customer 1 for around 5 years.

There's no "best" IDE, only better and worse 22 ones.

Right now I'm trying to settle in with 21 Aptana. It has a lot of cruft that I don't 20 want, like "Jaxer" doodads all over the 19 place. It's reasonably fast, but chokes 18 on large files when syntax highliting is 17 on. I have not been able to figure out how 16 to set up PHP debugging. Three good things 15 about Aptana: easy plugin installations, very 14 fast and intuitive Subversion plugins, ligning 13 fast file search.

I tried Eclipse PDT and 12 Zend for Eclipse, but they have nightmare 11 levels of interface cruft. Installing plugins 10 is a living horror of version mismatches 9 and cryptic error messages.

I also use Komodo 8 (they bought us licenses at work). Komodo 7 has a very intuitive interface, but is ridiculously 6 slow, chokes on medium sized files with 5 syntax highlighting. File search is intuitive, but 4 rather slow. Subversion integration is not 3 that great - slow and buggy. If not for 2 slowness, I would have probably stuck with 1 Komodo, especially for the debugger.

To get you started, here is a list of PHP Editors (Wikipedia).

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Geany is a great lightweight editor -- like Notepad++ for 4 Linux, only better. I find this, combined 3 with a few shell scripts and symlinks for 2 linking modules into a web source tree, make 1 developing on Linux easy and fun.

For PHP in particular, PHPEdit is the best, and 2 I tried and worked in some of them including, Dreamweaver, Elipse, Emacs, Notepad++, NetBeans, UltraEdit 1 ...

I love JetBrains IDEs. For PHP it is JetBrains PHPStorm.

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http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-php-ide/index.html

Personally, I love Notepad++... :D . The 5 above link compares some of the better IDEs 4 and the best ones aren't free.

I'd recommend 3 Komodo 4.4 though (I used the trial version) since 2 it was awesome. Better than Notepad++, but 1 not free... :(

I would recommend Zend IDE for the integrated 1 debugger.

Have you looked at Delphi for PHP (<http://www.codegear.com/products/delphi/php>) ?

Joe Stagner 1 of Microsoft really likes Delphi for PHP.
He says it here: "[Delphi for PHP] 2.0 is the REAL DEAL and I LOVE IT !"

I'm using Zend Studio. It has decent syntax highlighting, code 9 completion and such. But the best part is 8 that you can debug PHP code, either with 7 a standalone PHP interpreter, or even on 6 a live web server as you "browse" along 5 your pages. You get the usual Visual Studio 4 keys, breakpoints, watches and call stack, which 3 is almost indispensable for bug hunting. No 2 more "alert()"-cluttered debugged 1 source code :)

What features of an IDE do you want? Integrated 9 build engine? Debugger? Code highlighting? IntelliSense? Project 8 management? Configuration management? Testing 7 tools? Except for code highlighting, none 6 of these are in your requirements.

So my 5 suggestion is to use an editor that supports 4 plugins, like Notepad++ (which you are already used 3 to). If there's not already a plugin that 2 does what you want, then write one.

I use 1 Coda on Mac&nbsp;OS&nbsp;X.

Eclipse with PDT.

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I use and like Rapid PHP.

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There is a new guy in town, PhpStorm from JetBrains. You 2 use it and I bet you will forget all the 1 other editors. It's bit pricey though, unfortunately.

RadPHP (previously known as Delphi for PHP) is 1 the best.

All are good, but only Delphi for PHP (RadPHP 9 3.0) has a designer, drag and drop controls, GUI 8 editeor, huge set of components including 7 Zend Framework, Facebook, database, etc. components. It 6 is the best in town.

RadPHP is the best of 5 all; It has all the features the others 4 have. Its designer is the best of all. You 3 can design your page just like Dreamweaver 2 (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 1 a few know about this.

Aptana supports this and I use it for all 1 of my web development now.

My personal preference is Eclipse (with 14 various plug-ins) as I am developing in 13 several languages (PHP, Java, and Ruby) and 12 this way I am always used to interface and 11 keyboard shortcuts. This is not a minor 10 thing as you become very productive this 9 way. I haven't used Aptana, but will (hopefully) soon 8 - it does look interesting, though. For 7 others IDEs I have used: jEdit (for little 6 Java), Notepad++ (still for some scripting 5 and short test code runs). And for the features 4 You asked: Eclipse support many source code 3 version servers (Subclipse); your project can be 2 on a Samba share; ZendDebugger/xdebug for 1 debugging.

Hands down the best IDE for PHP is NuSphere 7 PHPEd. It's a no contest. It is so good 6 that I use WINE to run it on my Mac. PHPEd 5 has an awesome debugger built into it that 4 can be used with their local webserver (totally 3 automatic) or you can just install the dbg 2 module for XAMPP or any other Apache you 1 want to run.

The best IDE for PHP in my opinion is Zend Studio (which 15 itself is based on Eclipse PDT). Note that 14 in this case "best" does not necessarily 13 mean "good." It is slow and a 12 bit buggy, but even so, it's still the best 11 option for PHP programmers. I've tried a 10 ton of PHP editors over the years and I 9 haven't yet found one that works great.

Komodo IDE would 8 be my second choice. My only problem with 7 Komodo is that the autocomplete is not as 6 good. With properly structured apps where 5 you use phpDoc to document return types 4 etc., it should be alright. But I work on 3 a project that doesn't really do that and 2 Komodo can't read across files to know that 1 $user is a User object for example.

Personally everything that is based uppon 15 Eclipse or NetBeans is an overkill, the 14 GUI is crap and the performance is soooo 13 slow compared to other alternatives.

If you're 12 willing to pay I would suggest Zend IDE 11 (version 5.5, not 6 because it's based on 10 Eclipse) and EditPlus for a more lightweight 9 yet powerfull code editor.

If you're looking 8 for free alternatives, or if you code in 7 other languages other than PHP, OpenKomodo 6 is a really nice IDE with almost all the 5 features (no SVN neither CVS) that you require, the 4 only con I see about OpenKomodo is that 3 sometimes it messes my code indentation, but 2 then again I don't use it on a very regular 1 basis.

As for a free lightweight alternative: Notepad++. =)

Have you tried NetBeans 6? Zend Studio and 2 NetBeans 6 are the best IDEs with PHP support 1 you'll come across and NetBeans is free.

I've tried Eclipse PDT, with some success. Aptana 4 is also pretty good, or if you are doing 3 a lot of AJAX stuff, it's great. Your mileage 2 may vary, however, depending on what additional 1 plugins you want to use with them.

I believe that PHP being what it is, doesn't 14 really require an IDE. I use vi, it is fast, doesn't 13 crash and with grep -r and Ctags, it can multiply productivity 12 many times over.

Subversion is literally 11 built-in in the console, so you won't run 10 into problems with source control.

Finally, I 9 used springloops.com as the repositories, so I don't have 8 have to manually FTP files to any server. It 7 has a FTP deployment option which also makes 6 sure that only the altered file move to 5 the staging server.

The best part is that 4 you can go to a friends house, find a Linux 3 machine, and just start developing because 2 everything that you need is mostly available 1 on most machines.

There are a few IDEs out there you can use. I 9 personally like UltraEdit. It does syntax 8 highlighting, FTP/SFTP support, super fast, macros, etc. - only 7 $30.

If you're doing anything heavy and 6 would like some enterprise level IDE features 5 (local/remote debugging, framework support, IntelliSense), try 4 Zend IDE. I believe it's a few hundred dollars 3 but be worth it.

There's also a plugin for 2 Eclipse you try (PHPEclipse I think). I 1 hope this helps.

Dreamweaver

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Just last night I finally bought the latest 29 version of Zend Studio. I used previous versions and 28 I was always very happy with it. I don't 27 think you can undervalue the integration 26 between their debugger and their Firefox 25 and Internet&nbsp;Explorer toolbars. I 24 use them constantly and they give me a great 23 sense of how the application will run live.

The 22 latest version is built on Eclipse, so you 21 get many of its features as a base which 20 lets Zend focus on providing more advanced 19 functionality. I like the way they have 18 made Studio very PHP aware in the sense 17 that once you start it up everything is 16 geared toward developing PHP applications. It's 15 knowledgeable about Zend Framework, PHPDoc, and 14 PHP's newer OOP features. (It has grown 13 up along with PHP.) You can get most of 12 the same functionality from Eclipse or Eclipse PDT, but 11 I always felt they provided me with so many 10 options I couldn't actually do anything. Studio 9 let me start building applications pretty 8 quickly since that's about all it does.

I 7 think it meets most of your requests except 6 for the Ruby part. I'm sure you can add 5 Ruby extensison to it since it is Eclipse, but 4 I haven't tried that yet. Also, I think 3 they recently improved the JavaScript coding 2 as well, but I haven't tested it much so 1 far.

PHPEclipse is as close to Eclipse java power as it 2 could get. Eclipse PDT is much weaker (last 1 time I checked).

Why Dreamweaver - 2? For current work I 3 prefer Dreamweaver rather than another editor. I 2 have tried a lot of editors, but in the 1 end I stick with Dreamweaver.

I'm using PHPDesigner but I will go for 4 Eclipse PDT. I was always against Eclipse 3 until few months ago when I have one Java 2 project to finish... Great IDE

Now I can't 1 imagine one day without Eclipse. :)

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 is very easy to use. It 8 is having the feature of code highlighting, and 7 show the files which you have included in 6 the parent file in separate tabs, having 5 the option of php.net offline. That means if you 4 want to know about the new built-in functions 3 just Ctrl + space. It will show the drop down. It 2 is having the syntax and also the offline 1 preview of the syntax from php.net.

My opinion is that the best for PHP is RadPHP.

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I have a friend who swears by Aptana Studio.

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• Best of all: Notepad ++ (Free and helpful with colors and link)
• Average: NetBeans (Normal IDE)
• Not good: Eclipse (It crashes when you don't wait for it)
• Oh and I forget: Don't ever use JDeveloper :D

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NetBeans is pretty nice because it has syntax 8 highlighting, tabs, auto-formatting and 7 live syntax verification. Sadly, you cannot 6 save in UTF-8 without having to set up "projects".

How 5 annoying, I wonder if there is another editor 4 that has syntax highlighting, tabs, auto-formatting 3 and live syntax verification but would also 2 allow me to use UTF-8 without having to 1 set up "projects".