Support for Cake PHP, Symfony, Prado, Zend Framework, Smarty or ... ?
Recently, I have answered many questions whether NetBeans would support this framework or this one. So, I would like to clarify the situation about the framework support.
As you probably know, the first version of PHP support in NetBeans is going to be released as a part of NetBeans 6.5. At this moment, there is no official plan to provide support for any framework. It doesn't mean that it is not possible to develop a PHP application based on a framework in NetBeans 6.5. If there is an obstacle to use NetBeans to develop an application based on your favorite framework, then it should be considered a bug and tracked in our bug tracking system -- Issuezilla. On the other hand, NetBeans is open source and there is always a possibility that someone from the community writes a support for NetBeans 6.5 as is currently happening for Prado.
The plan for the next release is not done yet, but we have some basic ideas. We'd like to build support for a couple of frameworks. The actual number is a matter of resources. :) And who can decide, which framework / frameworks will be officially supported in the next version of NetBeans? The answer is simple. It's you, the community. Everyone can vote in Issuezilla for their favorite framework. Here is a list of issues where you can add your vote and comments what you would like to see in the support.
- Cake PHP: issue #140918
- CodeIgniter: issue #146036
- Prado Framework: issue #146029
- Smarty: issue #136500
- Symfony: issue #145913
- Zend Framework: issue #146028
If you'd like to vote, you have to have an Issuezilla account and be logged in. The link for voting is above the Additional comment text area.
If you thing I forgot about some framework, write a comment and I may add it. :)
--userdir
I work with development builds and I run more NetBeans instances at the same time. I have always one instance running, where I develop and second one for testing purposes. Also I change the NetBeans build almost daily. Fortunately there is --userdir switch.
This switch has one parameter and this is a path to a folder, where NetBeans stores all settings. It means that there are also stored information about opened project. Basically it's something like workspace. If I need to work on PHP suppport, I start NetBeans with this command
./netbeans.sh --userdir /space/netbeans/userdirs/php
If I need to fix something in Java Web Support I use
./netbeans.sh --userdir /space/netbeans/userdirs/javaweb
and for testing php build
./netbeans.sh --userdir /space/netbeans/userdirs/phptest
Because I use development builds, sometimes the userdir can be damaged and I have to delete it and start NetBeans with clean userdir, but this is not big issue. Sure, I can lose all settings, but I have to be aware that I work with the latest builds and this can happen. On the other hand, I have to delete the userdir very rarely.
I don't use installers, I always download NetBeans as a zip file. These are available on nightly build download page, where OS Independent Zip item in has to be selected in the Platform combobox. There are also publicly available realy fresh builds on continual building machine. The PHP builds are available here. There are available only zip files. The zip file can be unzipped anywhere on your machine. Then just execute the netbeans.sh or netbeans.exe, which is located in bin folder, with the --userdir switch.
Differences between Beta and Latest Builds
NetBeans 6.5 Beta was published almost 3 weeks ago. For me the beta is obsolete and if you try a recent build, you can notice that there was fixed many issues. In Issuezilla there are more then 1600 fixed issues during last three weeks. I would like to hihglight some improvements in PHP support:
- The performence of code completion was significantly improved.
- The editor has about 40 fixes since the beta. The code completion is more context sensitive and it is able to offer more precise results.
- There was also improved the navigation functionality. Fixes in the PHP Navigator, Hyperlink and also implementation of Go To Symbol was added.
- Fixes in the project and debugger.
- Small improvements in FTP support.
Over all there are still things which can be fixed and improved. I would like to thanks to all, who tried the PHP support in NetBeans and entered an issue. We have a few more weeks to stabilizing and fixing. Thanks for your help.
Running PHP project with Remote Web configuration
Prado Currency Converter Tutorial in NetBeans
Prado Hello World Tutorial in NetBeans
In this thread some users of NetBeans PHP ask for a support for Prado framework. Because I haven't worked with this framework yet, I want to learn something more about Prado framework to find out what NetBeans could offer for developers, who build their web applications on top of this framework. The evaluation of the framework takes more time, this entry shows, how to set up NetBeans to develop applications based on Prado framework.
Screancast about NetBeans PHP IDE and WordPress
I have created my first screancast, how to set up the WordPress as a NetBeans project and also I show how to write a simple plugin for WordPress. The plugin will look through content of displayed blog entries to replace the word "NetBeans" with a link to the NetBeans.org site.
The content of this screancast is based on Jan's etnry Configuring a NetBeans PHP Project for WordPress and my entry My first WordPress plugin in NetBeans. But you can see more features not only PHP specific. The length of videos is 8 minutes and it's published on NetBeans.TV.
PHP, HTML, JavaScript, CSS in One Editor
My first WordPress plugin in NetBeans
When I read Jan's tutorial how to configure WordPress in NetBeans I started to think, how it can be difficult to write a plugin for WordPress and whether NetBeans can help me in this. This entry is tutorial how to write simple plugin for WordPress.
What the plugin will do? The plugin will look through content of displayed entries to replace NetBeans with link to NetBeans.org site. It's simple and it should take only few minutes.
NetBeans IDE 6.5 Beta: Geared for PHP Development!
NetBeans IDE 6.5 Beta Is Available
The installer of PHP NetBeans distribution has 20 MB download size. It's about 5MB more then the installer for M1 had, but the IDE includes JavaScript debugger functionality, WebServices support and improvements in html and css editors. The new features in database support should be highlighted as well.
We are waiting for you feedback. If something doesn't fit, what you need or what you expect, write to us or enter new issue in our Issuezilla. You can leave your messages here as a comment or write to users@php.netbeans.org (subscribe to the mailing list, send an empty email to users-subscribe@php.netbeans.org). Help us to create useful PHP IDE.
This blog fits resolutions with the width 1024 pixels
Today I have checked comments from a computer which has display with resolution 1024x768. I have to admit that this blog didn't fit this resolution very well. The graph shows statistics of the 10 most often resolutions, which are used by visitors of this blog. You can see that the resolution 1024x768 is the third one.
Resolution of my notebook is different and I don't want to change the resolution during fixing this problem. Fortunately there is Firesizer, which is an extension for Firefox providing a menu and status bar to resize the window outer dimensions to a specific size. This extension can be useful for every web developer.
Now the problem is fixed and this blog fits the resolution with 1024 pixels width.
Last thing, what I want to mention are same data from resolution statistics. There are recorded 68 different resolutions for last month. The minimal width is 240 and maximum width is 3840 pixels.
When you create a web, for which resolution do you fit the pages?
FTP support added
Recently, FTP support has been added to Netbeans PHP IDE. In this post you can find how to setup it and use it.
Project specific PHP interpreter possible
Recently, we have added support to define PHP interpreter per project. You can easily try this feature by yourself, just invoke Project Properties, select run configuration "Script (run in command line)" and you are nearly done.
Hint: As you can see or read, one can select not only PHP interpreter ;)
Building AIR Applications with the NetBeans PHP IDE
A user of the NetBeans PHP IDE published a tutorial on how to setup a project for developing rich AJAX/HTML Desktop Applications using NetBeans and Adobe AIR SDK.
