PHP Development Tools
| Company type | Open-source software project |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software development |
| Founded | March 2006 |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Zend Technologies (major contributor) |
| Products | Eclipse plugin for PHP development |
| Parent | Eclipse Foundation (implied) |
| Website | www |
PHP Development Tools (PDT) is an open-source integrated development environment plugin tailored for the Eclipse platform, created to deliver an extensive suite of tools for PHP programming. It builds upon the Eclipse Web Tools Project to expand PHP support, facilitating more efficient development workflows. Further enhancements can be accessed through PDT Extensions.
PHP editor
- Code syntax highlighting
- Intelligent content assistance
- Automated code formatting
- Refactoring capabilities
- Predefined code templates
- Streamlined navigation within codebases
- Debugging compatibility with Zend Debugger and Xdebug
Validation
- Syntax checking and validation
Primary modules
- Core — responsible for parsing, search mechanisms, and communication processes
- Debug — manages protocols, messaging, execution, and integration with web servers
- User Interface — encompasses the editor, various views, preferences, and wizards
- Formatter — provides sophisticated code formatting tools
- Refactoring — offers PHP-specific refactoring utilities
- PHPUnit — integrates testing with PHPUnit
- Composer — supports Composer functionality
- Profiler — enables profiling via Xdebug and Zend Debugger
Project timeline
Initiated around March 2006, PDT advanced to version 0.7 by the end of that year and launched 0.7 RC3 in April 2007. Following multiple 1.0 milestones throughout 2007, the final release of PDT 1.0 was issued on September 18, 2007.
Naming issues
Originally titled PHP Development Tools, the project briefly adopted the name PHP IDE before reverting to its original designation on January 1, 2007. Both names appear in various documentation and reviews.
Zend Technologies contributions
Zend Technologies plays a major role in PDT’s development while simultaneously promoting its proprietary product, Zend Studio. Despite PDT being available as free software—which could potentially impact Zend Studio sales—the commercial product offers more advanced functionalities. Some consider PDT as a deliberately simplified version of Zend Studio designed to introduce users to Eclipse-based PHP development.