Your Favourite IDE or Editor for PHP

Hi All,

Been messing about as usual and managed to trash my long suffering laptop. Luckily all my data is backed up and it was a simple matter of SugarSyncing everything to the new one - a monster HP Envy - which I love, but it came with Windows 8 - yuck! Sorry, getting side-tracked - but who the hell thought W8 was a good idea?

Anyway, to my dismay, my main go-to program for web dev was Dreamweaver CS5.5 (don't laugh) and I had a licence through my school and since I've changed careers, the I can no longer use this. Boo hiss! But then, being aware that many web devs wouldn't touch Dreamweaver with a barge pole and having used a number of alternative programs in the past, I thought that this could be a blessing in disguise.

I've used the free-to-use Bluefish, Notepad++, Sublime, Aptana, Netbeans and a few others, but I've found them either lacking in features (e.g. being a simple editor rather than an IDE) or so ridiculously complicated (e.g. each setting having a bewildering number of options written in pure gobbledegook) that I had a horrible sinking feeling as there is no way that I'm going to join the Adobe CC subscription bandwagon.

I finally chose PHPStorm, a new program for me and I've been totally blown away by it. I can't believe how fully featured it is - and it knocks Dreamweaver into a cocked hat. It's not free, but it's very reasonably priced.

I've seen comparison reviews and discussions on other forums, but I was curious as to which IDEs or Editors Daniweb's members use and what reasons you may have for using them.

[pritaeas]

PHPStorm here. VERY satisfied with it. Been using it since V1, as at the time there wasn't really anything better.

That's really good to know p. Do you think there's anything else out there that's comparable? Couldn't believe the quality of the SQL table views and live templating.

[pritaeas]

Haven't found anything yet. I've used Zend Studio many years ago, but that was extremely slow in comparison. Not sure how that performs today.

[broj1]

I've been a long time Eclipse user. Not very advanced usage though, there are still things that I don't quite understand or like. But I like the fact that I was able to switch between Windows (current job) and Linux (previous job, home) environments without much hassle. Also OOP, JS and CSS syntax support are quite OK. Very good for multiple projects handling.

I use Notepad++ for quick edits. The only thing that bugs me is the doubleclick on a variable name won't catch the $ (dollar sign).

[jkon]

One more vote for Eclipse. From time to time i check other IDE's , I still haven't found something that just checking it a day , made me think “I don't have this in Eclipse and I need it” or , “this is really better than Eclipse” , I am sure that each IDE may have aspects that are better than Eclipse , but maybe those aren't important to me , or I should dig more to figure them out.

Sublime user here, I was tempted to use phpstorm but the price put me off.

If you create your own snippets in sublime it is super easy to roll out a website really fast.

For example, I use customized snippets for my framework of choice, e.g codeigniter or if you like laravel.

It's the perfect blend, I would never consider using anything bloated like dreamweaver, or eclipse again. I'm subscribed to the adobe cloud, but that is mainly for photoshop, illustrator and indesign.

It's the industry standard so I can't make do without these. That's for correct colour conversion, rgb to cymk etc, nothing to do with web.

Do web devs seriously use dreamweaver nowadays, I hope not.

The idea of using eclipse scares me, as my experiences were with java, and it was bloated as hell. Can't stand java nowadays either.

To each their own.

Do web devs seriously use dreamweaver nowadays, I hope not.

I was and have been for some time. It did pretty much everything I needed - FTP, basic SVN, code autocomplete and hinting, fantastic project/server management (IMO). It was only when I got into Laravel in a serious way that I began to see how limited it is. If my lappie hadn't ground to a halt, I'd probably still be struggling with it.

As for the price of PHPStorm, I paid £78 a few days ago. I have to say that I think that's the best value piece of software that I've ever bought - I may change my mind if my initial enthusiasm turns into a rantfest, but I think that's unlikely.

Sublime actually costs $70 for continued use after you've evaluated it, although the evaluation doesn't time out.

The Adobe CC kills me - £17 per program per month or £26 per month for the lot (£45 if you're a new customer). Sod that. I'm not saying Adobe is wrong, just that subscriptions aren't for me. They've realised that now everybody is regularly connected to the internet that they can make '£' . pow($big,$stupid) out of their wares. Anyway, that's a side issue.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I've used Eclipse in the past and dropped it, can't remember why - but probably didn't give it a fair shot.

[pixelsoul]

I use Brackets and Notepad++, I like it nice and lite.

[cereal]

Hi all,

I still haven't tried PHPStorm as I usually prefer simple editors, among these I'm really happy with Sublime, right now.

Interesting. I have to say I liked Sublime too. :)

I think for those that don't want to fork out money sublime is the winner, I know it is $70 but the trial never ends out, and I'm well aware the devs must realise this.

Perhaps they target companies? Also, I'm not sure what other magic phpstorm has that sublime doesn't but I guess there must be some.

For me, sublime combines the perfect blend of lightweight and usefullness. Multiple cursors, ctrl + d to find all words, control +i to search, ctrl+p to search a project and snippets.

I consider custom snippets to be my one greatest time saver in everything. Lots of useful plugins, like sftp to push to your ftp, html pretty. I don't use SVN but using a git client works for me outside sublime.

The Adobe CC kills me - £17 per program per month or £26 per month for >the lot (£45 if you're a new customer). Sod that. I'm not saying Adobe ?>is wrong, just that subscriptions aren't for me.

Abode ARE wrong. They know they've got everyone with their pants down and bent over a barrel. If it was me I would ditch their retarded software and opt for affinity designer, it's perfect for vector art, splicing and rbg to cymk (which is necessary in the print world.) In fact it's win /win all round.

Trouble is, affinity designer isn't the industry standard, although it can open photoshop and illustrator files (not sure about indesign.) And like always, it is these stupid standards which are entrenched in the industry that keep us royally screwed, when it comes to value for money.

Same with all the java and dotnet developers, 'the company's existing platform was written in dotnet so YOU must use dotnet!'

OK with creative cloud I get all of adobe's packages, flash lol, after effects, dreamweaver, most of these I don't need.

Sorry went a bit off topic.

Hey don't apologise - love the rant, has shades of my former self, heh heh. I've been swearing like a big horrible sweary thing from Swearland about W8. Bloody start screen pops up without any warning, then trying to get out of it again. Hate it. I would poke Gates in the eye with a spoon. With regard to "sublime vs. phpstorm", I hope I didn't make it out to be a direct comparison or competition, it's just nice to know which features contributors like in their chosen software.

I'm new to the "pro game", so getting it right at an early stage is important and if it means spending a bit of money to ensure I improve productivity so I can spend more time with my kids, that's what I need to do. I'm no longer messing about and doing the odd bit here and there.

I was getting a bit paranoid that I was missing out on some big secret program that all the seasoned pros on here were using, but it seems that people are using a wide range of products, some fully featured, others more on the light side.

[pritaeas]

http://www.sitepoint.com/best-php-ide-2014-survey-results/

A year old, but pretty much confirms the Sublime/PHPStorm choice.

Wow I didn't realise phpstorm was that popular, I know Jeffrey Way of tuts plus uses phpstorm in his most recent video tut, which is generally a good indicator of best practices.

https://laracasts.com/series/how-to-be-awesome-in-phpstorm/episodes/24

So Diafol have you ditched your chemistry gig and now doing web dev congrats? BTW you'll want to wipe that windows 8 and install linux soon :)

So Diafol have you ditched your chemistry gig and now doing web dev congrats? BTW you'll want to wipe that windows 8 and install linux soon :)

Heh heh, best thing I ever did was to get out of the game. Trouble is I'm struggling financially - was expecting that to begin with, but it's ok.

I may look at Linux again, but I didn't like it much using it as my main OS (about 10 years ago) when I had a dual boot system. Ended up burning it off my HDD and wondering why I ever bothered as it was more hassle than it was worth.

I'm not really sure how I would benefit from using Linux at the moment. My workflow is pretty good - especially now I've got PHPstorm, so I may have a tinker once I get a minute. ;)

[HITMANOF44th]

i use netbeans i use it for more then php but the reason i like it for php
is the navigator for class files when you load up one of your class files it will display all the classes to the left plus it will auto complete class names and code for you plus the history option to revert your code back and it offers plugins for just about anything

[edbr]

@diafol i have a similar linux history to yours but i just installed linuxmint on a new laptop and so far so good. worth a look at perhaps.

[Szabi Zsoldos]

Mine is PHPEd from NuSphere, amazing product, it's not free but it's worth the money.

Code suggestion is not case sensitive, great syntax highlighting, framework support, etc.

[Heanre]

netbeans.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT NETBEANS

it has intellisense support,which makes coding lightning fast.i learn a lot of the api of a language through intellisense..very helpful

the compiler for php is accurate. (with notepad++, at times it'll tell you the error is on line "n", and when you look at the code, it's not that line)

has support for multiple kinds of databases,

has own local server

boeing company uses netbeans(google for more info)

easy to install plugins

more stable than eclipse(used eclipse for years, until i got a project which made eclipse really slow, but netbeans was able to handle it perfectly)

i love the dark theme ^^ sublime is black by default, but netbeans's simply fit my needs

WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT NETBEANS

default theme sucks big time, however, it's a preference not really a downvote for netbeans

i don't love nor appreciate the drag and drop feature, especially its verbose on the source code, but i'm on hard coding so it doesn't really matter

[alisajjad160]

If you are a wordpress developer, i recomment you NetBeans IDE. this is working perfect for me. have more than feature of PHP strom and Dreamweaver.

[Sikander Nasar]

Sublime Text is best.I have use dreamvewer as well as netbeans but I have enjoy using sublime.

Fair comments guys about NB and ST, but what about them makes them "better" or should I say, which features about them make them enjoyable and productive? I really doon't want to get into the "best" / "better" because it's all very subjective and partisan.

[ezdata]

When I was on Windows, I used UltraEdit. On a Mac (which is now my only machine), I tried Ultraedit for Mac. Terrible experience. I got a copy of PHPStorm and it's the best thing I ever did. It works nicely with Git, does a great job of tracking individual file changes (for example, you can see a "local history" of the changes you made), has a nice debugger for single-stepping through your PHP code, does a nice job formatting code, finding unused variables, and so on.

[Aeonix]

Back when I started Notepad++ and PHP.net/W3Schools.com is all I needed. If something didn't work out I sought for error tried to fix it, and if it didn't work out I would paste my topic in every forum there was to be found.

Lately I've swapped to Brackets, which has some decent coloring and some hinting when it comes to variables and functions. It works pretty smooth so I work with that. I don't necessarily need to work with actual PHP helpers. Might continue writing in Notepad++, I work only with Brackets because it looks nice and not so pre-2000 (like many editors) in my opinion.

[Banderson]

NetBeans user here as long as I care to remember.

[mattster]

I have been using phpStorm for a little while now, and it has grown on me enough to invest in other JetBrains tools for other projects.

The thing I like, is that it seems JetBrains have crafted the IDE to fit a "by developers for developers" concept. Project handling and navigation is lightyears ahead of Dreamweaver and more 'lightweight' things that closer resemble text editors.

Code completion and suchlike are standard nowadays, but writing with phpStorm just seems to flow fast - I really do feel that writing flows very quickly. Maybe this is due to wrapping blocks within XYZ and little things, change all variable names and multiple cusors with the alt key. It's the only program I've ever used where I look forward to the startup tips every time I load it.

I am a massive fan of CSS preprocessors, and it's standard in anything I do. Having an IDE that even recognises that preprocessors exist is a plus, let alone understanding the syntax. I'm sure a sililar thing applies to PHP frameworks as well.

Finally, theres no 'I' in team and phpStorm's collaboration tools, cool widgets (like todos) and plugins (for version control) just make the process soooo much more efficient.

Overall, a very pleasant IDE. Maybe @diafol should go into sales - JetBrains have probably taken a fortune from everyone giving it a go! ;)

He he, thanks for the career advice matt, I seriously need it! Yes, PHPStorm is the find of the decade for me. Thanks for pointing out what you found useful and its good features.

I found debugging a bit of a challenge to set up (me being stupid, not PHPStorm lacking any functionality). Other than that, I can't really fault it.

However, I don't want to get carried away - I don't want this to turn into my PHPStorm fanboy post. It's worth checking out IDEs and Editors every now and again as "one size does not fit all" and things move on, considerably sometimes, with eaach new release.

[rsleventhal]

As a former PHPEdit user (Waterproof SAR), when I went full-out linux for my desktop systems, that stopped being an option. I've since gone head first into jEdit and absolutely swear by it.

Great set of plugins to do just about anything you'd like and a friendly enough API to write your own if the standard set of stuff isn't sufficient.

Cross platform (as it's written in Java) and is now the core of my dev team's editing suite(s). Free and open source, too.

My $0.02
-Ray