Eclipse PHP Development Tools

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Eclipse is a very powerful Integrated Development Environment (IDE) written in Java. Eclipse is a widely used open source IDE that’s used for working with many languages and frameworks, but the best part about Eclipse is that it also has a PHP Development Tools (PDT) plugin originally written by Sun Microsystems.

This makes it the perfect choice to work with PHP projects from start to finish. Even now, Eclipse PDT is being updated and extended by a few contributors who have a continued interest in its success.

Aptana Studio

Aptana Studio is an open source PHP development tool used in integration with various server-side and client-side web technologies. PHP, Python, CSS3, Ruby on Rails, Ruby and HTML5 are some of these technologies. It supports debuggers and command line interface to make it easier for PHP app development. It allows PHP programmers to build and test web applications in one environment. It comes with SFTP, FTP, and IDE customization. This powerful web development engine leverages the flexibility of Eclipse and comprises details about the range of support for each element in the leading web browsers. Aptana Studio is a high-performance PHP IDE and includes a wide range of attractive features to increase your productivity.

Aptana Studio features:

  • Set breakpoints, control execution, inspect variables.
  • Supports latest HTML5 specifications.
  • Collaboration with peers via merge, pull and push actions.
  • IDE Customization.
  • Git Integration and Built-in terminal.

Aptana Specialties:

  • Languages supported: PHP, JavaScript, Ajax, HTML and Ruby on Rails.
  • Platforms supported: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Plugin for Eclipse.

CodeLobster

CodeLobster IDE from Codelobster software firm is the most popular one among the PHP development tools when considering its community. It supports most of the PHP frameworks like Symfony, Laravel, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Magento, Joomla, and Drupal. CodeLobster IDE streamlines. There is no need to remember the names of arguments, functions, attributes, and tags — it has implemented all these with autocomplete features for HTML, JavaScript, PHP, and CSS. With its internal PHP debugger, you can validate your code locally. In addition, this PHP tool automatically detects settings of current servers and configures related files to make you use the free debugger. It also supports major CMS like Drupal, WordPress, Magento, and Joomla.

CodeLobster Feature

  • Syntax highlighting.
  • SQL manager.
  • Code validator.
  • Autocompleting of keywords, DOM elements, and their properties.
  • Function Parameters Display.

CodeLobster Specialties:

  • Languages supported: PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
  • Platforms supported: Windows, Fedora, Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Mac OS, and Mint.

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is one of the leading test editors for PHP development. However, it isn’t quite an IDE; with the installation of certain plugins and packages, you can make it a suitable editor for developing PHP applications. This cross-platform source code editor natively supports several programming and markup languages. It is highly customizable, with a custom UI toolkit. 

Sublime Text Features

  • Split editing.
  • Instant Project Switch.
  • Better command palette.
  • Distraction free mode.
  • Plugin API.

Sublime Text Specialties:

  • Languages supported: All popular languages.
  • Platforms supported: Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

PHPStorm

Lightweight, extremely fast and smooth, PHPStorm is a standard choice for PHP development tools. This PHP IDE works well with PHP frameworks like Zend Framework, Symfony, Yii, Laravel, and CakePHP and with popular Content Management Systems (CMS) like Drupal, Magento, and WordPress. This IDE provides live editing support for major frontend technologies, such as CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript, in addition to code refactoring, unit testing, and debugging. It also empowers developers to integrate with databases, version control systems, remote deployment, composer, command line tools, and rest client.

PHPStorm Features:

  • Code completion.
  • Code re-arranger.
  • Zero Configuration Debugging.
  • Native ZenCoding support.
  • Supports extension with plenty of useful plugins like VimEditor.

PHPStorm Specialties:

  • Languages supported: PHP, JavaScript, Visual Basic, C, C++, and C#.
  • Platforms supported: Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Zend Studio

Most web developers opt for Zend Studio because of its optimal speed. Writing and debugging code in Zend Studio doesn’t demand any extra effort and time from developers. While supporting PHP 7, it debugs PHP scripts by integrating X-ray, Xdebug, and Zend Debugger. This comprehensive PHP IDE comes with an exciting set of features and powered to deploy applications on various servers, including servers in the cloud. Developers can extend Zend Studio via Eclipse plugins.

Zend Studio Features:

  • Indexing and searching PHP Code.
  • Faster Performance in the validation.
  • Zend Framework & Zend_Tool Integration.
  • Docker Support.
  • Support for Eclipse Plugin.

Zend Studio Specialties:

  • Languages supported: PHP, JavaScript, Visual Basic, C, C++, and C#.
  • Platforms supported: Microsoft Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

NuSphere PhpED

PhpED is a proprietary integrating PHP development tool offered by NuSphere. This PHP IDE comprises an advanced PHP editor, Profiler, PHP debugger, database client, and code insight. This utility provides developers with several tools and tweaks that will make the whole web development process less cumbersome. With the help of the commercial PHP accelerator, PhpExpress, PhpEd speeds up the application development process. This IDE is an ideal option to develop complex websites and web applications. It supports JavaScript, HTML, and CSS3 and offers massive support for PHP 7.1. Its refactoring capabilities empower developers to improve their code. PhpED allows developers to work through the most popular PHP frameworks like Laravel, Zend, and Yii.

PhpED features:

  • Accelerate PHP apps with PhpExpress.
  • Support for composite file extensions.
  • Parallel Debugging.
  • Full integration with phpUnit.
  • Refactoring of PHP code.

PhpED Specialties:

  • Languages supported: PHP, HTML, XML, CSS, Perl, Python, and JavaScript.
  • Platforms supported: Windows, Web, Mac, Linux, iPad.

Netbeans

This tool comes with rich features that support multiple languages. NetBeans was initially used for Java development, but the current version of this tool is lightweight, faster and supportive for PHP development services. It includes extensions to support other programming languages like C, C++, and HTML5. It supports the development of large-scale web apps and languages, such as Japanese, Russian, English, Brazilian Portuguese, and simplified Chinese. This open-source PHP development tool can work with almost all popular PHP frameworks, including Zend, Symfony 2, CakePHP, FuelPHP, Smarty and WordPress. NetBeans PHP IDE offers various features specific to developing web applications with recent versions of PHP.

NetBeans features:

  • Code Formatting and folding.
  • Smart code completion.
  • Getter Setter generation.
  • Try/catch code completion.
  • Syntax Highlighter.

NetBeans Specialties:

  • Languages supported: PHP, JavaScript, C, C++, and HTML5.
  • Platforms supported: Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Solaris.

Cloud 9

Cloud9, an open-source cloud IDE provides a development environment for hundreds of programming languages (PHP, C, C++, JavaScript, Python to name a few). Developers can start coding immediately with pre-configured environments and build web applications with features like browser compatibility testing and live preview. They can collaborate with their colleagues using collaborative coding features. Cloud 9 offers a flawless experience for creating serverless apps, enabling you to define resources, execute serverless apps, and debug at the remote. You can share your development environment with your peers, and it enables you to pair program as well as track real-time inputs. Cloud 9 ensures the effortless building of serverless application, allowing you to code in your browser.

Cloud9 Features:

  • Real-time language Analysis.
  • Tabbed file Management.
  • Integrated Debugger.
  • Built-in image editor.
  • Code reformatting.

Cloud9 Specialties:

  • Languages supported: PHP, JavaScript, C, C++, and HTML5.
  • Platforms supported: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Solaris.

PHPDebugbar

PHPDebugbar is a PHP debugger that can run with any project and display data from a broad range of web apps. This PHP development tool includes two parts: mainDebugBar object and data collectors and the render. A StandardDebugBar includes a pre-configured built-in set of collectors.

Along with PHP, you can also catch JavaScript and HTML. In addition, PHPDebugbar can inspect CSS elements and monitor networks. By offering more features that developers expect, it becomes a quite impressive open source solution. It can be the best option for the profiling of data from any web application. It allows you to create your own collection for easy integration.

PHPDebugbar Feature

  • Monitor network traffic.
  • Handles AJAX requests.
  • Log & debug directly to Debugbar.
  • Fast & easy to use interface.
  • Preview config& application config.

PHPDebugbar Specialties:        

  • Languages supported: PHP, Ruby, .Net and Java.
  • PHP versions supported: PHP 5.5 and above.

Eclipse

When you digitally search about the best PHP development tools, most of your search results will have Eclipse in their list. A complete development tool, it ranks in the list of top PHP tools. With the liberty to select from a broad range of plugins, it makes it easier to develop and simplify PHP code. It also aids you to customize and extend the IDE to address the needs of the project. This PHP IDE can support both GUI and non-GUI applications. This cross-platform PHP editor is ideal for large-scale PHP projects.

Eclipse Feature

  • Syntax highlighting.
  • Content assist.
  • Code templates.
  • Formatting of code.
  • Code navigation.

Eclipse Specialties:

  • Languages supported: ABAP, Ada, C, C++, Haskell, COBOL, D, JavaScript, Fortran, Java, Julia, Perl, Lua, NATURAL, PHP, Prolog, Ruby, Python, R, Lasso, Rust, Scala, Groovy, Scheme, Clojure, and Erlang.
  • Platforms supported: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Solaris.

Each tool listed here is fully packed with outstanding features and capabilities that allow you to create PHP websites quickly and easily. These PHP development tools aren’t the only ones available in the market. You can find much more paid and free PHP tools. 

Conclusion

Eclipse PHP Development Tools (PDT) is a productive, robust,. and extensible PHP IDE for professional developers. It provides tight integration with Apache Ant to ease the PHP development process. The latest version of PHP Development Tools (PDT) has been released by IBM for all major operating systems including Windows, Mac and Linux in the month of May 2019.

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