A PHP Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

A decent Integrated Development Environment (IDE) will make programming quicker and easier. There are IDEs available for most languages/platforms and PHP/MySQL is no exception.

If you're serious about PHP and MySQL, then even if you have a broadband Internet connection - it still pays to have all the software installed on your own PC. Fortunately some very clever and noble people have provided FREE tools for this purpose:

These are professional quality development tools. They make web-development easier, faster, cheaper and more fun! My personal thanks goes out to these guys:

These packages will install (various versions) of the essential tools onto your Windows PC. Once they're up and running you'll be able to build entire dynamic websites, and test them, offline!

• UniformServer is excellent. Super easy installation and use. All the latest versions of: Apache2, PHP 4, MySQL 4, PERL 5. I'm using it.
  
  
• PHP Triad - An installer of Apache, MySQL and PHP for Windows. Includes phpMyAdmin and has a neat control panel. The new versions of this package are commercial, but the final free release is still available and it works fine!
  
  

  Once you have PHP Triad installed you can see exactly what your dynamic pages will do - all on your own PC. Once it's set up, you'll have running on your PC: An Apache webserver. PHP 4 MySQL Once installed - you don't need any fancy development tools - you can edit your PHP pages in any editor you like, then when you come to preview it - you load it up from your own local webserver in your browser with the following URL: http://localhost/yourdomain.com/ PHP Triad Setup: You must put your webpages in a directory below the c:/apache/htdocs/ directory for them to be accessible to Apache. On first use, you need to install Apache as a service using the option with that name on the PHP Triad control panel. You shouldn't need to start Apache - it should start automatically. You will need to start MySQL manually if you want the database to be running.

  
  
  
• PHPerl. Installs Perl as well as the main 3. Also includes phpMyAdmin and Hermes (email) and a control panel.
  
  
• IBServer. Installs the main 3, plus PHP-Nuke a superb news/content management system. Check out this online manual for PHP-Nuke if you're interested in learning what it can do.
  
  
  

• PHP Coder - An excellent PHP editor. Integrates with the PHP executable alone (if you don't have Apache installed - this is essential!).
  
  This program has some great features: It reads the manuals and uses what it finds to provide function and other definitions. It figures out your own classes and functions. It matches brackets (braces). It has a debugger. The FTP function allows you to edit file directly on your webserver, but there's no 'site update' bizarrely. Oh well nothing's perfect, but this comes very close!.
  
  The folk who created this seem to be trying to go commercial with a different version called 'Maguma Studio'. The two programs are very similar (they won't run at the same time) yet Maguma has a worse interface. Hmmm.
  
  
• PHP Edit - is an open source PHP editor with a debugger and lots of other useful stuff. It looks nice, but has less functionality than PHP Coder. It's full o' bugs too! (May 2003) I'm sure it'll progress!
  
  
• DevPHP is an open source PHP IDE project hosted at sourceforge.net. I've not tried it.
  
  
• IDE.PHP This is interesting, but of limited use. It's a java script program that runs in your browser and allows you to edit files (in a particular directory) directly on your server. Freeware.
  
  
• Zend Studio - The only commercial offering here. I haven't checked it out. Please let me know what it's like if you have! From $195.
  
  
• PHP IDEs a comprehensive list of PHP IDEs at LinuxDocs.com.
  
  
• PHP IDE's - Ratings PHP Kitchen's user's reviews.
  

If you have any problems, or can't find the downloads, let me know. Thanks!