The choice of IDE is a personal preference. In this article, I provide a list of popular IDEs you can use for PHP programming and will go through setting up the eclipse IDE.

• PHP IDE for Eclipse with the Aptana Plugin,
• PHP Development Tools: It’s PHP Integrated Development Environment framework for the Eclipse platform. Syntax Highlighting, Content Assist, Code Formatter, Code Templates, PHP Debugging, and Syntax Validation.
  • In Eclipse, click Help -> Install New Software and work with: Dynamic Language Toolkit – http://download.eclipse.org/technology/dltk/updates-dev/5.0/ and then PHP Development Tools –
    http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/updates/3.4.
• NetBeans,
• PHPEdite,
• PhpStorm, and
• phpDesigner.

How to Install and Setup Eclipse IDE for Web Development?

Here’s a link that compares the IDEs.

How to Set Up WordPress in the Eclipse IDE

This video explains how to import the wordpress website into Eclipse IDE

Setting up FTP/Remote Connections:

There are several explorer panes to explore your files in Eclipse.

Install Aptana plugin to your Eclipse installation. It has built-in FTP support, and it works excellently. You can:

• Edit files directly from the FTP server
• Perform file/folder management (copy, delete, move, rename, etc.)
• Upload/download files to/from FTP server
• Synchronize local files with FTP server. You can make several profiles (actually projects) for this so you won’t have to reinput over and over again.

Another one to use is the “Project Explorer”, not the app explorer, or the php explorer.

To get to the remote connections panel, in the file menu go to Window > Show View> Other…, then type remote into the search field and you should see the “Remote” option. Double-click it. This is where you will set up your remote FTP/SFTP connections just like your used to.

In the Project Explorer, there will be a connections icon in your project (it looks like a little globe). Click the connections icon. Here you will setup how and which remote connection your project uses. Once you have it set up. Uploading and downloading files is a cinch! Just right click and transfer.

Eclipse natively supports FTP and SSH. Aptana is not necessary.

Changing the Theme of your Eclipse Editor

In ‘Eclipse > Preferences’, under ‘General > Appearance > Color Theme’ you can change the theme of your editor.

Configuring Remote System Explorer

You would be able to connect to your host from eclipse and modify the files.

Go to ‘Window > Open Perspective > Other’. Select Remote System Explorer

Click the little down arrow in the ‘Remote System’ tab and select ‘New Connection’ and enter the host details to connect.