PHP development environment

Fluffy88

Hey all,

I have recently started working in a big firm where we use Java and during my first few weeks I have been using different tools that make dev work really easy. Things like an IDE, build tools, version control and Unit testing.

So I was hoping some of the great minds here could help me get a similar PHP setup going. I do and can program in PHP it's just I want to get a proper project setup going.
We use Eclipse as an IDE for Java so I would like to use it for PHP too.
I currently use http://www.assembla.com/ as an SVN repo and the Subversive plugin.
PHPUnit is built off JUnit so I would also like to use it too.
Maven is the Java build tool, is there a similar PHP tool to use?

So what I am struggling with right now is getting everything setup together.
I have Eclipse with the PHP plugin installed. I have subversive plugin installed. I have Apache with PHP5.2 installed on my machine and I have downloaded PHPUnit but I am struggling to get it all working together.

What project structure would you recommend to use for a full website built in PHP, with a MySQL database, images, JavaScript libraries(like jQuery) CSS files and so on...?
How do I setup my project so that PHPUnit will be included when I try and run my test classes? Should I just install it straight into PHP itself?
(this is kind of my main problem)
Is there any build tools that can I can configure to take my full project and deploy it straight to a webhost?
And if you have any other suggestions that will help me with organising my PHP projects properly I would greatly appreciate your help

Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any help offered.
fluffy.

Procasinator

One build tool for PHP is Phing, which is Ant based.

Another option is using something like Aptana, which is Eclipse based but focus on web development. You could probably manually cobble together and customise Eclipse to provide the same level of functionality, but Aptana might suit your workflow better straight out of the box.

Razzuh

I find the Netbeans IDE for PHP very good. I think you'd find it easy to switch from eclipse for PHP, there isn't a huge difference. Netbeans supports xdebug for debugging (eclipse probably does too, I'm not sure though). Beyond that I don't really use any other tools specifically PHP.

ocallagh

I also use Assembla and use Eclipse PDT & Subclipse with it.

You can install Zend debugger with Eclipse PDT which (IMO) removes the need to actually get the Zend IDE itself.

You can use PHPUnit with both but I use some benchmarking tools built into the framework I use (Kohana). Also, JMeter which I'm sure you know is good too for load testing.

For building I generally just use svn export and rsync I don't see the need for a build script with php unless you're compiling c libraries or something?

For MySql, phpmyadmin is invaluable. Oracle have some good tools now. MySql Query Analyzer etc

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

not really what you're asking, but have you tried the phpstorm IDE? IMO it blows away Eclipse, just download the trial and check it out.