NetBeans extension makes simple work of PHP

Arriving with the NetBeans 6.1 release last week was the NetBeans IDE Early Access for PHP. This provides a complete PHP integrated development environment hosted in NetBeans, re-using the infrastructure NetBeans has already employed for Java and Ruby. Having walked through the main NetBeans IDE, I thought it worth looking …

[Peter Ford]

Debugging

I tried Netbeans EA PHP yesterday and found I could not make the Xdebug link work: there's no documentation, or even hints, about how to debug code. I know it's Early Access, but if it's not intuitive then at least an example would have helped.

I've used Netbeans a lot for Java development, including attaching the debugger to remote Tomcat server to debug, which is really nice. If someone can give me a clue about getting Xdebug working with Netbeans I'd be really happy.

[John Macintyre]

interesting

been using phpEclipse in Eclipse (funnily enough) for a while now, been pretty good. Be interesting to try this one and see how it compares, sounds like it's a bit more brushed though I'm using an old version the former plugin anyway

[Tony Humphreys]

Looks nice

Certainly appears to compete well with zde, and free too!

If NetBeans can properly mount and use nautilus's server shares (zde cant) then this will clinch it for me.

Editing filed via FTP would be good, as it is useful in zde when it hits the fan.

I like the memory thing at the top too (no idea what it is though it looks useful)

[Nicholas Moore]

Memory thing

Lets you know how much memory Netbeans is taking up at that time. Clicking on it makes Netbeans run the garbage collector - very useful indeed!

The new version of Netbeans seems pretty fast, especially compared to my installation of Eclipse. As for PHP - I've always written it in gedit/vim, but for larger projects, I would be tempted to try Netbeans from what I've seen so far whilst playing with it...

So in general, I'm impressed. Could be a contender for my IDE of choice...

[Mark Rendle]

Interesting

I seem to have landed on NetBeans as my Ruby IDE of choice (since Ruby In Steel costs megabucks), so if the PHP support works out well that would get me back down to two IDEs.

[Wen]

Xdebug, PHP in NetBeans, etc...

Re: Peter, did you check out this tutorial to see if it helped?

http://www.netbeans.org/kb/61/php/installing-and-configuring-required-software.html

And thanks all for the initial positive feedback. I work on the NetBeans IDE, and we will be adding FTP support as well as a list of other improvements (can check out wiki.netbeans.org for future plans). Please pass along feedback- we went with an early access to get the conversation started on how we can make this a first rate tool for PHP developers.