Top 5 Tools to Boost PHP Development
Importance of PHP
PHP or Hypertext Pre-processor is the most widely used server-side scripting language for creating dynamic, intuitive, and interactive websites and web applications. As per the recent study by w3techs, more than 79% of websites are using PHP as a server-side programming language. PHP has gained popularity among the developer’s community due to many good reasons such as its quick turnaround time, customizable structure, security, detailed documentation features. PHP offers a reasonably shorter learning curve compared to other languages, which means lower cost and faster development.
You might be wondering about what enables PHP to build innovative, engaging, and feature-rich projects efficiently? Well, it’s the best-in-class tool that helps enhance the performance of PHP applications.
Let’s dig in deeper to know about the most popular PHP tools:
1. PHPStorm:
PHPStorm is a cross-platform IDE (integrated development environment) for PHP development that mainly inspects all types of codes efficiently. It is a lightweight, quick, and smooth tool that makes it a standard choice for PHP development. PHPStorm receives further assistance from code re-arranger, code completion, PHPDoc, and other such features that enable developers to write clean and clear codes.
It works well with crucial PHP frameworks like Yii, Zend, Symfony, CakePHP, and Laravel. Additionally, it supports popular Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Drupal, Magento, and Wordpress.
Features:
• Intelligent coding assistance
• Easy code navigation and search functionality
• Code quality Inspections
• Smart PHP Code Editor
• Zero Configuration Debugging
2. Aptana Studio:
Aptana Studio is the most robust open-source PHP development IDE that’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux OS. It includes a wide range of powerful features that enables to manage PHP projects proficiently. The built-in PHP server in Aptana studio makes it easy to integrate with other PHP programs. Additionally, it provides support to multiple protocols, including FTP, SFTP, Capistrano, and more.
Features:
• Integrated Debugger and Command Line Interface
• IDE customization
• Built-in terminal and Git integration
• Supports HTML, CSS and JavaScript code
3. NetBeans IDE:
Netbeans comes with rich attributes and supports multiple languages, including English, Japanese, Russian, Brazilian, Portuguese, and simplified Chinese. This tool was initially known for java development, but the current version of NetBeans is lightweight, faster, and supports PHP development.
Features:
• Code folding and formatting
• Smart code completion
• Getter setter generation
• Hints and refactoring
• Try/catch code completion
• Quick and smart code editing
4. Zend Studio:
Zend Studio is a comprehensive IDE that is most popular among web developers. It makes use of the latest version of the PHP framework and enables the developers to code faster. Moreover, it supports Zend Debugger, Xdebug, debugging, and integration with Z-ray tools to improve debugging capabilities.
Features:
• Indexing, validating and searching PHP code
• Code documentation
• Smart Code editor which supports PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
• Supports mobile application development
5. Cloud 9:
It is an open-source cloud IDE that supports multiple languages, including PHP, Python, C, C++, and more. Cloud 9 platform offers a flawless experience for building serverless applications and enables developers to define resources, debug, and remote execution of serverless applications.
Features:
• Real-time collaboration and chat
• Code with a browser
• Develop serverless applications easily
Conclusion
So there you have it. PHP tools offer outstanding features and capabilities that enable developers to create PHP websites and web applications quickly and efficiently. So, list your business requirements and choose the best tools that fit your needs. A reliable PHP web development company can help you provide customized PHP web solutions.
