Php tools helps you to build applications in visual studio. With the visual studio integrated development environment it is possible to be productive with your development are your are able to create modern web based applications in a simple and easy way.
Php development has also become easier using the new screen reader application with its unique features . php provides a variety of tools in order to help you with your web applications being cross-platform compatible in order to enable developers to have an excellent customization in their applications. A screen reader tool has been recently under taken with several advanced features that are offered by developer . It has an advanced php debugging system which plays an important role when developing any web based application.
TextMate
TextMate
- Supported operating systems: macOS
- License: GNU GPL vs 3
- Source code: https://github.com/textmate/textmate
- Supported languages: HTML, Markdown, CSS, XML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, Perl, Python, Java, and more
TextMate is an advanced source code editor for the macOS operating system. As it has been designed specifically for Mac, it integrates with the underlying Unix shell, therefore you can write custom actions in any programming language that works with the Unix Standard Streams (stdin and stdout).
To make customization easy and straightforward, TextMate utilizes an extensible bundle system. A TextMate bundle can include language syntaxes, code snippets, macros, commands, templates, workflows, and more. You can manage bundles with the help of a handy bundle editor.
The first version of TextMate was proprietary software you had to buy a license for. However, the current version, TextMate 2.0, has been open sourced under the GPLv3+ license, so you can download it for free (however, TextMate’s license policy page mentions that they ‘may charge for updates after 2.0’). If you are looking for a (currently) free PHP editor that runs natively on Mac devices, TextMate 2 is definitely worth a look.
Best features:
- custom themes
- live HTML/Markdown preview
- powerful search tool
- clipboard history
- easy-to-manage code snippets
- foldable code blocks, indented soft wrap, multiple carets, multiple tabs, and more
- scoped settings
- bundle editor
Codelobster
Codelobster IDE modernizes and simplifies the PHP development procedures. You don’t require keeping in mind the names of functions, arguments, tags, and attributes. The platform has enabled all these for you with auto complete functions intended for PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.An internal free PHP Debugger facilitates you to validate the code on a local basis. It automatically detects your existing server settings and configures related files to let you utilize the debugger.Codelobster IDE has the following features and capabilities to work with Magento:
Higher capacity to build projects automatedly installing Magento platform
Autocomplete for Magento methodologies
Tooltips for Magento methodologies, Context, and Dynamic help
Codelobster IDE backs Windows, Mac OS, Linux, WordPress, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, etc. and has exceptional plug-ins for working smoothly with Joomla, Drupal, Twig, JQuery, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Node.js, BackboneJS, EmberJS, CakePHP, VueJS, Laravel, AngularJS, Phalcon, Magento, and Yii.So, Which PHP code editor can I choose? Let’s explore some more options.
Novi HTML Visual Editor
Novi HTML visual editor, the technical side of the HTML editor, was enormously user-oriented. In 2016, Elementor for WordPress was the only proficient drag & drop editor that offered WYSIWYG abilities. So, people required something such as that for HTML-based online projects.Firstly, Novi facilitated non-technical professionals to design their websites without difficulty. Secondly, the builder turned useful to multiple web designers as well as developers. This visual HTML editor enabled all over the world to further the working process effortlessly.The fundamental actions and features users were able to execute with Novi:
Craft clean, structured site layouts with a code-free approach
Enabled drag and drop technology
Design pages of utilizing ready-made content modules
Generate visitor-friendly web portal navigation
Customize UI and UX elements
Use of ready-made content blocks
Set-up elements swiftly
Handling media library
Change color schemes, gradients, and images
Enabling CSS, HTML, and JS code
Facilitating contact forms, popups, and maps
Applying visual effects, carousels, countdown timers, and slidersSo, which IDEs are the best for PHP development? Let’s explore some more alternatives.
Brackets
Brackets which is an advanced and modern text editor, makes it simple to design in the browser. With straightforward visual tools and pre-processor backing, it is quite tailor-made for web designers and front-end developers.Here are some of the functionalities and features of Brackets
Inline Editors
Live Preview
Pre-processor Support
- Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS
- License: MIT License
- Source code: https://github.com/adobe/brackets
- Supported languages: HTML, CSS, LESS, SCSS, Sass, JavaScript, PHP, Java, Python, Perl, Ruby, C, C++, VBScript, and more
Brackets is an open source code editor created and maintained by Adobe. As many of Adobe’s products, it primarily focuses on frontend development, but it supports several backend languages as well, including PHP. It has become popular for its inline editing feature for CSS that lets you see all the selectors belonging to a specific CSS rule.
If you do both frontend and backend development, Brackets can be the ideal PHP editor for you — especially if you also work with CSS preprocessors, such as Sass and LESS. That being said, Brackets is not the most advanced PHP editor in this list, but it’s free, lightweight, and easy to use.
Brackets has an extension registry as well, however, it doesn’t have as many extensions as Atom or Visual Studio Code.
Best features:
- vertical and horizontal split view
- live preview using a real-time connection with your web browser
- lightweight (written in JavaScript)
- inline editing (for CSS)
- custom themes are available via the Brackets Extension Registry
- support for CSS preprocessors, including quick edit and live highlight functionalities
Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver is a leading and professional web development software package. It is a multi-faceted product fitting for everything right from straightforward page design to development of dynamic pages supported or written with PHP, ColdFusion, XML, XSLT, ASP, CSS, and JavaScript.Some of the features of Dreamweaver
Integrated CMS Support
Smart Coding Assistance
CSS Support
Notepad++
Notepad++
- Supported operating systems: Windows
- License: GNU GPL vs 2
- Source code: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus
- Supported languages: HTML, CSS, XML, YAML, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, PHP, SQL, Perl, Python, C, C++, and more
Notepad++Notepad++ is an absolutely free source code editor and Notepad substitute that backs multiple languages. It runs in the MS Windows environment and is governed by GPL License.The features of Notepad++ include
- Autosave
- Finding and replacing strings of text using expressions
- Enable Line bookmarking and Guided indentation
- Allows macros and simultaneous editing
- Facilitate split screen editing along with synchronized scrolling
- Helps with line operations, sorting, and case conversion
- Assists with the removal of redundant whitespace
- Lends a hand with tabbed document interface
jEdit
jEdit
- Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
- License: GNU GPL vs 2
- Source code: https://sourceforge.net/p/jedit/svn/HEAD/tree/
- Supported languages: HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, .htaccess, PHP, SQL, Perl, Python, Java, Scala, and more
jEdit is a cross-platform source code editor written for the Java Virtual Machine, so it runs on any operating system that has the Java runtime environment installed. Its goal is to provide programmers with an editor that can be installed and set up as fast and effortlessly as possible. jEdit has syntax highlighting modes for more than 200 programming languages.
Even though jEdit is a stable tool, you’ll find more fancy PHP editors on this list. However, it’s still worth a try if you need an easy-to-use free PHP editor that runs out of the box. Plus, it can be a great choice, too, if you find a jEdit plugin that can help you with your work — it has some cool ones, including support for version control other than Git and project and file management tools (however, check the age of the plugins, as some haven’t been updated for many years).
Best features:
- unlimited undo/redo functionality
- copy and paste via unlimited clipboards
- any number of editor windows can be open at the same time
- multiple and rectangular selections
- macros can be recorded from user actions
- supports for Unicode and 160+ character encodings
- powerful search and replace tool
- extensible via plugins
GNU Emacs
GNU Emacs
- Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris
- License: GNU GPL vs 3
- Source code: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
- Supported languages: Lisp, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Scala, Perl, and many others
GNU Emacs is a stable and well-established code editor that has been on the market since 1985. It was primarily created for the GNU operating system, but it supports many other OSs as well. Emacs’ design and functionality are both fully customizable using the Emacs Lisp scripting language.
Emacs supports a multitude of programming languages, including HTML and CSS, but it’s typically not used by frontend developers. This is not saying that Emacs is not recommended for you if you are looking for both a frontend and PHP editor. However, note that it has a steeper learning curve than most of the other editors in this list.
In addition to its awesome features, using Emacs certainly has a coolness factor in the programmer community due to the expertise you need to use it, and it even appears in popular culture, such as the Tron: Legacy and Social Network movies.
Best features:
- content-aware editing modes
- full Unicode-support
- customizable both via the command line (using Emacs Lisp) and a graphical UI
- open source package repository to extend the editor
- built-in documentation
- additional functionalities such as debugger UI, project planner, IRC client, calendar, and others
Sublime Text 3
Sublime Text 3
- Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS
- Price: $80 with 3 years of updates; download is free
- License: see EULA
- Supported languages: HTML, CSS, Sass, LESS, Markdown, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, Java, and more
Sublime Text 3 is the third major release of the notable Sublime Text source code editor. The new version added pane management and symbol indexing to the already popular editor and improved speed issues such as slow startup time. Sublime Text 3 is fully customizable with the help of plugins — many ready-made ones are available via the editor’s package manager, but you can create your own custom one too.
If you go with Sublime Text 3 as your PHP editor, it has many plugins available for the PHP language for things such as comment generation, linting, testing, beautifying, formatting, and others. Plus, it has some plugins for WordPress development as well that can help you a lot with writing WordPress code.
The licensing of Sublime Text 3 is a bit weird. Even though it’s proprietary software, you can use it free of charge if you don’t mind the (frequently shown) pop-up notifications that remind you to buy the license.
Best features:
- customizable snippets, menus, macros, key bindings (with JSON files)
- command palette
- goto definitions with a project-wide index of functions, classes, and methods
- advanced editing functionality such as split view, document map, multiple selections, auto completion, and others
- built-in package manager
- extensible via plugins
Conclusion
If you want to be a great web developer who writes better, cleaner and more reliable code, you need to know how use the right tools and what great tools to use. That’s why we put together this list of the best PHP tools to help you code smarter and faster.