PHP is a server side scripting language that has become quite popular among web users. More than 240 million websites are powered by PHP today including the most loved social media network Facebook.
PHP has been serving as a web development language for quite sometime now but it can indeed be used as a general purpose language to not only build websites but also various other web and mobile applications. In fact, many popular Content Management Systems including Wordpress have been built using PHP.
The ever-increasing popularity of PHP has given birth to many PHP developers who are always on the lookout for new PHP development tools to make their job easier and convenient.
Today, in this post, we have compiled a list of top 7 PHP web development tools that will not only make it easier for you to develop sites but also accelerate the development process.
1. PHP CPP
PHP CPP is a C++ library for creating PHP extensions. PHP CPP is a package of extremely easy to use and well documented classes that can be implemented to develop native PHP Extensions. It is certainly one of the most popular PHP development tools that is developed by Copernica, a well-recognized provider of resourceful marketing software based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Impressive Features of PHP CPP:
- Extremely easy to use and understand
- Allows you to add special behavior to classes
- Equipped with Magic Methods to make the switch easier for novice C++ developers
- Automatically calls comparison function when PHP objects are compared.
- No Zend engine knowledge is required
- Supports all important PHP functions
2. Sublime Text
Sublime is yet another popular PHP development tools to make the lives of PHP developers a lot easier. It is basically a text editor for prose, markup and code. Sublime Text is a perfect blend of high-end performance, extraordinary features, and smooth user interface.
Amazing features of Sublime Text
- Available for Linux, Windows and OS X
- Comes with GoTo Anything to allow you to open files with few keystrokes
- Lets you enter Distraction Freee Mode using the View/Enter Distraction Free Mode Menu
- Has a Command Palette that holds infrequently used functionality, such as changing the indentation setting, changing the syntax and sorting.
- Has a powerful Python based plugin API
- Allows you to customize anything including completions, Macros, Snippets, Menus, Key Bindings etc.
3. Pinba
Pinba is developed to help developers track the performance of PHP scripts, direct developers' attention to the code, and locate bottlenecks in realtime. With timers with arbitrary tags equipped in Pinba, developers can also measure specific parts of the code. It is basically a MySQL storage engine that is used as a realtime tracking/statistics server for PHP using MySQL.
Amazing features of Pinba
- Send email notifications about error pages with drawdowns of indicators and HTTP statuses
- Comes with tags support to view statistics for a separate section of page forming
- Offers a live mode to view realtime information about request processing
- Analyze log of heaviest and slowest pages
- Offers review of error pages, site load, memory peak usage and requests time
4. ParseDown
ParseDown is one of the best parser tools that adheres to CommonMask and supports GitHub Flavored Markdown.
Amazing features of ParseDown
- Accelerated the development process for the developers
- Has been tested in in HHVM and in 5.3 to 7.0
- GitHub Flavored
- Highly extensible
- Comes with Markdown extra extension
- Clears most of the CommonMark tests
5. Mink
Mink is a flexible and versatile browser emulator tool that not only improves the development process but also speeds it up. As a matter of fact, Browser is the platform through which web users communicate with websites and applications. Mink is an open source emulator/controller which is developed in PHP 5.3 for web applications.
Amazing features of Mink
- Offers headless browser emulators which implement without GUI through consoles
- Has an array of other useful tools
- Easily integrates with browser
- Has in-browser emulators
6. CaseBox
CaseBox is a PHP/MySQL powered and an open source web application for managing and storing files, tasks, and records. The tool boasts of a desktop-like interface where you can easily build a dozen-level of directors and save data in the structure preferred. It also allows you to store the information of the files as well as clients.
Amazing features of CaseBox:
- Extremely easy to use and understand
- Has a modern and flexible framework
- Allows custom development of a different usage scenarios
- Offers excellent document management with full text search and version control
- Comes with inbuilt calendaring and tasks to monitor progress
- Lets you build your own forms to save information
PHPImageWorkshop is an open source class which makes use of GD library to help you handle images with PHP. PHPImageWorkshop, as the name suggests, is an image editing library that is supposed to perform simple tasks such as pasting watermarks, creating thumbnails, image positioning, multiple superimpositions and so much more. It also allows you to superpose different layers with each layer having a background image.
Amazing features of PHPImageWorkshop:
- Offers utmost flexibility to manage images with ease
- Allows you to crop, resize, rotate,move and superimpose images
- Comes with GD library
Author Bio : Jason is a professional WordPress developer who has vast experience in developing a web application in less time. He is associated with Wordsuccor Ltd., a leading firm in the field of converting PSD to WordPress Theme. He loves to share his knowledge with others on the web in his free time.