Zend Studio is an advanced state-of-the-art editor for PHP development. The program comes equipped with a multi-pane interface where developers can view files, functions, the stack and output – as well as hide any pane they don’t wish to see.
Developers can quickly and efficiently develop and test Web database applications using Zend Framework, as well as use tools to quickly resolve application-specific issues.
The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for PHP Developers
Zend Studio is an award-winning professional integrated development environment (IDE) for PHP, the language behind more than a third of websites on the web. Offering deep cloud integration capabilities, Zend Studio helps developers design, deploy, and debug next-generation Web applications and services both locally and remotely.
Zend Studio goes beyond standard IDE functionality such as code editing, project management and graphical debugger in offering advanced features to assist developers in creating complex mobile apps with server back-ends. These include supporting frameworks such as Symfony and Laravel for app architecture development allowing them to select their preferred framework when building their app.
Enhancement source control support enables developers to easily import existing repositories into their workspace using SVN, CVS and GitHub. Furthermore, the IDE provides built-in tools for unit testing, debugging and optimizing applications.
With the IDE, developers can also easily create templates that simplify reusing common blocks of code. Simply enter a template name and press Tab to insert it into your work – the IDE will replace its contents with your text instead, saving time by eliminating copy-and-paste of large chunks of text from templates.
The IDE offers multiple debugging configurations tailored to specific situations. For instance, files located in the workspace can take priority when debugging; this enables developers to quickly address issues by stepping through code or inspecting variables and parameters. Furthermore, its full execution of program can be recorded so developers can effectively “go back in time” in order to pinpoint any error causes.
The integrated debugger of the IDE is powerful yet user-friendly, helping developers quickly comprehend complex applications with detailed information about class names, function methods and arguments, variable types, values and current values as well as any errors detected by its code analyzer. Furthermore, advanced debugging functions enable track variables, debug multithreaded code and set breakpoints to aid debugging efforts.
PHP Web Page Debug
PHP Web Page Debug’s debugger is built upon Xdebug and works through an IDE debug server configuration which acts as an intermediary between them and PHP Web Page Debug (see Setting up a remote debug server connection for more details).
Debugging sessions allow you to set breakpoints that pause code execution at specific lines of code. By clicking on one in the IDE, execution stops and the Call Stack window displays all function calls before giving you access to explore variables and expression values via Variables and Watches windows.
Set watches to monitor values of certain functions and view their output in the Log window. When an expression changes, this window will display it along with any exceptions during execution of that function; you can also use Navigator window to quickly navigate directly to any line in its execution code.
PHP Web Page Debug also offers you the capability of setting a starting URL, making debugging complex applications not installed locally easier. Furthermore, you can select whether all pages linked from that starting page need to be debugged as part of its debugging process.
Debug File Mappings in the Options dialog allows you to manage how source files are mapped between your project’s file system and that of a server, providing control over how source files are mapped between both. This feature is especially important if your app uses includes or requires statements to load files outside of its project.
Once you’ve selected your options, debugging an application is as simple as entering its URL address and clicking the Debug button in PhpStorm. Your app will launch and PhpStorm will provide debugging insights according to a preconfigured PHP Web Page Debug configuration.
Debugging Functions
Zend Studio provides several debugging functions to assist developers in finding errors in their PHP code. The debugger allows users to control execution by setting breakpoints, suspending launched programs, stepping through their code step by step and inspecting variables – these features help pinpoint where an error originated in order for you to rectify it as quickly as possible.
Debugging features also include a profiler that provides a breakdown of functions used by scripts to help identify performance bottlenecks. To use the profiling feature, either click Debug on your editor interface, or go into Tools | Debugging | Start profiling in Debug perspective and trigger it there.
Apart from debugging, the IDE offers other features to enhance efficiency. It supports workflows that speed unit testing and reduce the amount of time spent writing code. The IDE integrates with source control tools such as SVN, CVS and Git, enabling developers to access their repositories easily. Finally, its plugin system enables users to extend its functionality.
Zend Studio comes equipped with extensions such as the Xdebug debugger, which enables remote debugging of web applications via Zend Studio. Another useful tool is Z-Ray, which offers debugging and profiling solutions for Expressive apps. Both these extensions can also work together seamlessly as integrated debugging solutions for web apps.
Version 7.0 of the browser debugging toolbar compatible with Firefox 3 now allows for convenient debugging sessions directly within your browser without first starting one in Zend Studio or debugger toolbar, making this ideal when working on mobile devices.
PHPDocs, included with the IDE, automatically generates documentation for each PHP element automatically and makes it accessible via standard HTML browsers, making your project’s source code easier for others to read and comprehend. Furthermore, integration with websites like the PHP Manual gives the most up-to-date information regarding them.
PHP Intelligence
Zend Technologies was established in Minneapolis, MN in 1998 to help software developers of PHP-based applications create, deploy and manage web application-based systems across various operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X workstations. Their development tools, Zend Studio and Zend Server provide software developers with all of the resources they need for PHP web app creation and deployment management.
Zend Studio features a sophisticated code editor that understands both the structure of a PHP project and language itself, offering intelligent code completion, syntax highlighting, and advanced refactoring capabilities. Furthermore, Zend Studio supports the latest version of PHP to provide seamless transition from legacy code to new projects and frameworks.
IDEs allow developers to quickly create web apps that combine HTML front-ends with JavaScript and PHP back-ends for enhanced web apps that combine mobile app development on existing web server platforms with JavaScript/PHP back-ends, thus speeding up development time and increasing efficiency. They also facilitate working across both layers of an application stack at once – making complex projects much simpler to tackle efficiently.
Additionally, the IDE offers a graphical debugger that allows developers to step through each line of code in live production environments and set breakpoints, inspect variables, or examine object states. Refactoring tools also make code restructuring simple while decreasing chances of errors and bugs.
Zend Studio boasts many other features, such as built-in support for MySQL and Oracle databases as well as integration with various JavaScript and HTML libraries, CVS/Subversion version control systems and various versioning systems.
Zend Platform 3.0 software offers several enhancements to the PHP engine, including a bridge that enables PHP applications to call Java services running on servers. Furthermore, this system management protocol connects into OpenView Tivoli Unicenter management tools for easier administration. Furthermore, security features have also been implemented within Zend Server software as well as features to help developers increase performance scalability and availability for their apps; all this comes together for an attractive 30-day trial version available to download today!
