PhpStorm 5 is an integrated development environment that supports PHP and builds off of the HTML/CSS and JavaScript editing of JetBrains’ WebStorm IDE. PhpStorm 5 includes a number of features that aid development of PHP web applications. It includes an advanced PHP editor which provides code completion, detection of duplicate code, and PHP refactoring. The editor is also able to use Smarty templates for faster coding and bypassing repeated tasks. In addition, PhpStorm is able to provide FTP/SFTP synchronization with a server and works with code versioning platforms to generate changelists, shelved changes, repository changes view, and other views and notifications to better understand the scope of the project.
The IDE supports PHP 5.4 features. PHP Code Sniffer is used to check PHP code on the fly with checking triggered by each change to the file. The editing tools provide straight-forward access to the code along with syntax highlighting for PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The IDE presents the related files in a project and uses a structure overview to provide a simplified understanding of the program structure in a side pane during development for quicker navigation through the code. PhpStorm’s latest version improves the SQL autocompletion and the ability to export queries as separate files for database maintenance. Other SQL and database-related features were also improved with PhpStorm 5.0.
PhpStorm also provides visual debugging. This allows easy inspection of local variables and user-defined arrays or other objects. You can also use the IDE to perform remote debugging for your server and evaluate expressions in runtime. The debugging works across multiple session and can maintain the session while moving between pages. It works with Zend and XDebug toolbars to debug directly from any modern browser. Duplicate code can be detected and PHPDoc is supported to encourage best-practice documentation of variables and annotating other objects.
PhpStorm is a relatively inexpensive commercial PHP IDE and provides a supporting environment for faster, more accurate development of PHP-based web applications. I have used it for a year now for various projects and it is a definite improvement over using just a text editor and even a smart text editor like Notepad++. The ability to synchronize with a web server over FTP, while maintaining project files locally, is certainly a great feature for rapidly testing different looks and approaches to a page.
You can download a trial, view demo videos, or purchase the software from http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/