Best free PHP IDE or advanced editor

[aceofspades]

What is the best free PHP IDE or advanced editor. Right now I use notepad ++ but i am wondering if there is any good ones that are tailored for PHP.

[Nick Manley]

On Windows and Mac I've always used Dreamweaver. For Linux I usually use Quanta. I assume you're on Windows though. If I recall correctly I remember seeing one called PHPEdit, although I have never used it and it costs money. I know Nvu doesn't have syntax highlighting for PHP so don't even bother with that. If you know how to use CygWin you can use a Unix program called Bluefish.

That's about all I know of. I've been so happy with Dreamweaver and Quanta that I haven't really looked into anything else. A friend of mine is going to college next year and me and him have tossed around the idea of working on our own IDE for html and php.

Maybe you could browse around Sourceforge for something you like. Here is a link...
http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_...&words=PHP+IDE

[Dallas Crilley]

I generally use DreamWeaver, from Macromedia, for my website's needs -- as Nick suggested.

With a quick google search, I found a nice website called http://www.php-editors.com/, which recommends and reviews PHP editors, books, and even offers games, tutorials, and templates to use.

It looks like what you'll be needing; I hope I helped.

[JoeP]

Eclipse is a foundation IDE... free & open source
There are many addins for it. I have mine set up for:
Subversion (subclipse)
PhP (phpeclipse)
XML / XSLT (oxygen - not free)
Javascript (JSeclipse)
HTML/XHTML (Web Standard Tools)

Thare is very strong support for Java but I don't use it.
joe

[page1ink.]

I personally didn't care for Eclipse: it's too much of a hassle to set up and me and Java, let's just say we don't get along.

if you like OpenOffice.org's interface you'll probably like Eclipse.

I just moved from TextPad to Notepad++ and the difference is mindblowing. not to mention they actually make updates to Notepad++ =p

[consulo]

Check out PHPDesigner 2006. It's free, and helped me put together a php/database-driven website. Although it was a simple website, I was a complete novice, and thankfully the IDE was easy to figure out. But I'm not a pro ( not even intermediate) so can't say it's the 'Best'.

http://www.mpsoftware.dk/

[mwolfe38]

Alright some people don't like eclipse but if you've used a recent version and figured out how to get plugins installed, I can tell you this is by far the best php IDE (not a simple editor like notepad++ or other similar editors).
Don't get me wrong, a basic editor is fine for throwing together a few scripts or a basic website, but most of them have no intelligence when it comes to working on an actual project. If you want an editor that can syntax highlight they are a dime a dozen, but an editor that can offer full tab/auto completion for functions, classes, etc, that can detect syntax errors, can reference library code from one project with another, go with eclipse or netbeans with php support:
http://www.netbeans.org/features/php/index.html

As for eclipse, I usually start with this:
http://www.zend.com/en/community/pdt
(This is the free version of eclipse with the pdt plugin which stands for php development tools)
I wouldn't recommend phpeclipse as someone mentioned before, because it's really old and no longer maintained (at least that was the case a year or so ago).

If you can fork up the money then actually buying the new version of zend which is basically just eclipse + pdt + some advanced features you won't find in the free pdt plugin, and some extra plugins already installed like RSE for working with remote files, and some web related plugins for html/css/javascript. Note that RSE and the web related plugins are free and can be installed in eclipse.

I do my development using linux and thus I don't have the option for some other IDE's but between eclipse and netbeans I don't really need anything else, everything else I used in the past didnt have nearly the features.

[mwolfe38]

Oh there is one other alternative which is just moderately good for its php support but great for everything else web related, and that is Aptana.
Its basically just eclipse with its own plugins, and the php plugin is decent at best, however its better than nothing and very easy to install. Unfortunately its remote plugin only works over ftp, not sftp/ssh or anything else which RSE plugin will do. There may be a way to install RSE with aptana but last time I tried I had dependancy hell since aptana uses RSE for its FTP support (i think). But it uses an outdated and crippled version so that they can get you to pay for the full version of aptana (which is another reasonably good option if you have the money).

[bhDesign]

I must say that at first Eclipse was like wrestling with an elephant!!! There is a bit of configuring and I have not much background knowledge on the topic. But. once I got it figured out it has become an essential tool in my php tool box. The debugging is a life saver and the mySql explorer is great. I suggest anyone having trouble with getting it set up to just bare with it and find the instructions online. They are easy to find. It will be worth the trouble.

[xlestak7]

www.php-editors.com got a good review about PhpEd from nusphere, so I suggest to check out - www.nusphere.com. Rock solid IDE with the best debugger in industry in my opinion.