PhpStorm

PhpStorm goes beyond a basic PHP development environment, as it aims to include all the necessary instruments for writing, debugging, testing, and refactoring code, as well as allowing users to actively manage version control systems, handle the front-end and back-end implementations, and make use of database (specifically SQL) tools and methods also.

PhpStorm does not only enable PHP, HTML, and CSS code writing. The app also lets your preview your content inside the program's GUI, easily use the editor's dedicated interpreter, utilize table prefixes in integrated SQL queries, or have access to a smart HTTP client for configuring your SSL files.

You can actively work with web technologies and even benefit from the tool's specific options (like style sheet functionality support or using a code analysis linter for optimized code and bug/syntax/stylistic error avoidance). Moreover, when it comes to PHP web framework support, the application gracefully manages to integrate well-known instances such as WordPress, Symfony, Laravel, Drupal, Zend, Magento, CakePHP, Yii, etc.

Regarding the front-end instruments you have at your disposal, PhpStorm supports (besides HTML and CSS) popular scripting languages and CSS preprocessors (languages that extend CSS's basic functionality), like Sass, Less, or Stylus, plus HTML/XML coding tools like Emmet, and, last but not least, programming languages like CoffeeScript, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

With PhpStorm, you can always focus on the development part rather than stressing about other issues that might come up. The program tries to make it as smooth as possible to ease into your workflow, and to stay there. With advanced code writing functionality, the app performs successive, simultaneous code reviews, analyzing both small portions of the code and the whole project.

You have suggestions based on the expected syntax/method, easy code navigation, code extracting methods, visual debugging, profiler integration support, as well as new inspection methods for evaluating and fixing errors.

Some of these new inspection additions include: simplifying Boolean expressions, comparing and reporting on operands with incompatible types, replacing assignments in the function call with named arguments, simplifying and/or inverting 'if' blocks with elements in the common body, 'foreach' loop variables overwriting, highlighting unsafe HTTP links, flagging suspicious name combinations, choosing and configuring pre-commit inspection profiles (stored in IDE, default, hardcore, etc.), automatic language reference injecting, and so many other.

To conclude, PhpStorm is a highly qualitative product that combines a modern-looking interface with amazing capabilities and accessible features. The tool is packed with a plethora of features and smartly chosen integrations, and it also supports remote deployment, command-line usage, REST testing, or Docker usage.