
PHP Development

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A dedicated PHP coding environment and complete integration
with web standards.
PHP Source Code Editor 
The NetBeans PHP editor offers code templates and generation
(Getters and Setters), refactoring (Instant Rename), parameter
tooltips, hints and quick fixes (Implement All Abstract Methods), and
smart code completion (including bracket completion). Benefit from
syntactic and semantic code highlighting, pop-up documentation, code
formating and folding, and marking of occurrences and exit points.
NetBeans IDE for 7.1 extends the code editor with clever try/catch code completion, smart method parameter pre-filling, rectangular selection, and hint improvements. The PHP Help has also been rewritten.
For more information about improvements to the PHP Editor, see the NetBeans for PHP blog.
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PHP Projects
The NetBeans project offers a version of the IDE tailor-made
for developing PHP web sites that comprise a variety of scripting and
mark-up languages. The PHP editor is dynamically integrated with HTML,
JavaScript and CSS editing features.
Focus on the code and speed up code scanning by excluding
individual directories in the Project properties. The NetBeans IDE
fully supports iterative development, so testing PHP projects follows
the classic patterns familiar to web developers.
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PHP Files Without Projects
You can edit, run or debug PHP files
that are
not in a PHP project. Open the file and press SHIFT-F6 to run the file.
Open the file and press CTRL-SHIFT-F5 to debug the file. In either
case, a dialog opens in which you can provide script run arguments,
change the working directory, or specify PHP options. | 
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Easy Code Navigation
Use the navigator window or the Go To Type, Go To File, Go To
Symbol, Go To Declaration, Find Usages menu items for easy code
navigation in large projects. The editor warns about potential code
problems by flagging them and giving an hint in a pop-up. A tasks
window lists all warnings in the project, making it easy to find and
resolve problems.
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Zend, Symfony, and Smarty Frameworks 
Create a new PHP project based on the Zend, Symfony, or Symfony 2
framework. Filter and view help for Zend or Symfony commands, specify
command parameters, preview the whole command, and run it. You can also
assign shortcuts to commands. Depending on the project, the list
includes either Doctrine or Propel commands.
Install the Smarty framework plugin, available in NetBeans IDE 7.1, and NetBeans IDE recognizes Smarty template files in your project.
Zend Framework
Support
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PHP Debugging 
Debug PHP code using Xdebug: You can inspect local variables,
set watches, set breakpoints, and evaluate code live. Navigate to
declarations, types and files using Go To shortcuts and hypertext
links. Use a global PHP include path for all projects or customize it
per project.
The NetBeans IDE for PHP also offers command-line debugging:
The PHP program output appears in a command line display in the IDE
itself and you can inspect the generated HTML without having to switch
to a browser.
You can debug scripts and web pages, either locally or
remotely. The NetBeans PHP debugger integration allows you to map
server paths to local paths to enable remote debugging.
Starting in NetBeans IDE 7.1, all debugging options can be found under their own tab in Options. |

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Remote and Local Project Development 
PHP projects can easily be deployed from within NetBeans IDE
to local or remote servers via FTP or SFTP. You can easily create
a new project from remote sources, and the IDE will upload your changes
automatically when you save a file. Run the project as a local web
site, as a command line script, or as a remote web application via FTP
or SFTP.
NetBeans IDE 7.1 extends (S)FTP support with lazy file loading, keep-alive, and FTP over TLS/SSL. See Deploying a PHP Application on a Remote Web Server for more information.
Note: NetBeans provides basic support for FTP/SFTP, sufficient for a lone developer to work on a simple project. If you are working on a complex project or with multiple developers, you should use a version control system. The IDE also supports a range of version control systems, including CVS, SVN, Git, and Mercurial. For more information about NetBeans IDE's version control support, please see Version Control & Developer Collaboration.
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PHP Unit Testing 
Create PHPUnit tests and Selenium test cases for files or
folders, run tests, and view test results. Starting in NetBeans IDE 7.1, you can define test groups to selectively run unit test upon. In the PHPUnit properties
you can define a custom XML configuration file, a bootstrap file for
command line options, or a custom test suite, or you can let the IDE
generate skeleton code for you. Use a keyboard shortcut to navigate
quickly between test and tested class.
Testing
with PHPUnit and Selenium
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Code Coverage
Generate a Code Coverage report for PHP files to see how well
your test cases cover your code: Covered statements are marked green in
the editor, statements that haven't been executed during the test are
marked red. The evaluation is based on the number of executable
statements, lines with white space and comments do not distort the
result.
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Namespace and Variable Types
The PHP editor understands namespaces and variable type
definitions in comments which improves code completion and hyperlink
navigation. The Editor recognizes PHP code including heredoc notation
in PHP projects and in PHTML, YAML, and PHP files, including the latest
PHP 5.3.
PHP
Namespace Support
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MySQL Integration
PHP developers can also look forward to working with MySQL.
The Insert Code command provides a Database Table option that creates
the code needed to execute a SELECT statement in MySQL. Open a window
to make changes to MySQL tables, select individual table cells with the
mouse, and edit them directly.
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Rename Refactoring and Instant Rename
You
can alter the name of a selected type, type member, function, or
constant in the code, using either Rename Refactoring or Instant
Rename. Instant Rename renames all elements in the scope of one file.
Starting in NetBeans IDE 7.0, the user can also use Rename Refactoring.
Rename Refactoring can rename elements throughout a project.
Simply
put the caret on the identifier and press Ctrl+R. A
dialog
opens in which you type the element's new name. You then preview your
changes. You can decide to rename only selected instances of the
element.
Instant rename still applies
to local variables, parameters in functions or methods, and private
members of a type. Instant rename does not require you to preview your
changes. |

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PhpDocumentor Support
You can use NetBeans PHP IDE to generate PHP code
documentation with PhpDocumentor. You must download PhpDocumentor
yourself and make certain in the IDE Options that the IDE recognizes
the PhpDocumentor installation and that the IDE has found the correct
path to the PhpDoc script. The PhpDoc script must also point to the
correct location of PhpDocumentor.ini. After you set everything up
correctly, all you have to do is right-click a project node and select
Generate PhpDoc. The IDE generates the PhpDoc files in the location of
your choice.
Note: PHPDocumentor does
not fully support PHP 5.3.
Namespaces and some other 5.3 features are not documented by PHP
Documentor.
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