Please help on How To Publish Eclipse PHP Project to Remote Server

[MehdiAnis]

I have a WinXP Developer machine with Eclipse and workplace for all my PHP projects. I also have my UbuntuLAMP server in LAN.

I want to create/edit php/hetml files on my Development machine, then publish the files to UbuntuLAN server. How?

More over is there an automated way to:-
1. I click Run..
2. File from workspace for that project get copied to my UbuntuLAMP server (throw FTP or Samba sharing, both already configured to use)
3. In browser whebsite opens.

I have been a .NET/Visual Studio developer for long time. I am looking for some easy Run/Debug/Publish option in Eclipse as they are easily available in VisualStudio. Can some one please help? Thanks.

[JRM]

Firezilla is a very good FTP client. It also supports SFTP.

[Jerail]

Well, ASP.NET is more complex when uploading to a server, because it works in unison with a compiled language like VB or C#. It's generally important to upload everything as a project, and not as individual files.

PHP, on the other hand, is purely a scripting language and doesn't require that anything special be done when uploading. You can literally just copy the files with an FTP, Samba, or FISH client (I prefer the latter) and it should work fine, as long as the directory structure's integrity is kept in-tact.

I know some website editors like Dreamweaver provide an integrated FTP interface. I'm not sure about Eclipse, since I don't use it, but I'm just saying there's no need to use special features in developing apps, when the very simple option of dragging your files from your local machine to the server is available.

I, along with many PHP developers, use simple text editors to edit my apps (I use Vim on *nix and Notepad++ on Windows). Since there's nothing that needs to be compiled like with ASP.NET/C# (or VB), there's no real need for an IDE in my opinion.

You might also want to look into XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) which gives you a way to test web apps on a development machine, and easily start and stop all the components at once.

I hope this helps provide some insight.

[MehdiAnis]

Thanks Jerail,
For your post, I understand every bit of what you say. I can edit php file, then manually use ftp/LAN file share/samba etc to move the files to server. But as an IDE Eclipse should have given us that opportunity.

How many times a developer works on real production server? Almost never. If 99% of people need to move php files to production server or a server to see/test the changes, a built in FTP feature would have been nice. I guess NetBeans has it. Click RUN, all files (or only the changed ones) FTP'd to server, then it opens Browsers and URL for the PHP page I edited or the main page etc. It seamlessly integrated.

I read some review that Eclipse is a very good PHP editor. I tried it and was amazed not to see an automated file transfer mechanism.

Well, I will try anotehr software PhpEd, let see how good is that.

Thanks to all.

[JRM]

Eclipse is designed to work with SVN , but is configurable to do other tasks as well.
Did you search their site?

[MehdiAnis]

Eclipse is designed to work with SVN , but is configurable to do other tasks as well.
Did you search their site?

I think SVN (Code repository) has nothing to do with what I am looking for. I haven't look for 'things' that I want in SVN site yet, I will.

I am looking for something like a PLAY button.
1. I Click that button
2. Eclipse checks for all edited php/html/css/any file of that project SINCE last uplaod to SERVER (= an ftpLocation/remotefolder/samba which can be configured in Eclipse)
3. Upload edited/changed files to SERVER
4. Open browser with the URL of the php/html file that I had in front of me when I clicked PLAY button. Ofcourse, an index.php w/be opened as http://deveserver/aProject/index.php, where as I save "http://deveserver/aProject" somewhere in Eclipse setting.

Right now I do it in this way:-
1. Right click on a project
2. Click EXPORT
3. Select GENERAL->FileSystem, NEXT>
4. Browse shared network folder in an UBUNTU for the HOME folder for the php site
5. FINISH to upload files
6. Open Browser, type in http://DevServer/Project/FileName.php to check on the file.

I want a MACRO/Batch that would combine steps 1 to 6 in one button click or such.

Thanks for your ideas.

-Mehdi Anis-