I have suddenly inherited a PHP project. What VSCode extension or server is best for developing it locally? I’m down with any other suggestions too!

monomon, 6 months ago

ddev saved my life when I inherited a drupal project.

lemmy_in, 6 months ago

Jetbrains Phpstorm is probably best in class, but you’ll have to pay for it.

sjpwarren, 6 months ago

I don’t do PHP. But I used other JetBrains tools for Go, Python and Java and they are very helpful. The AI Assistant is pretty good for explaining code. I am not in anyway paid by them. Good Luck

rikudou, 6 months ago

I recommend using PhpStorm - nothing else even approaches it in terms of features and code analysis.

JDubbleu, 6 months ago

I’ve become the primary maintainer of a jumbled mess of a PHP/Laravel project we use as our"mission control" at work and I’ve been dying due to lack of dev tools. Might have to take a look at this (pester my manager for a license) assuming it has Laravel support.

rikudou, 6 months ago

Not sure if natively, but there will definitely be a plugin for Laravel if not.

You can try it for 30 days for free and see for yourself. Or you can always use the early access builds for free.

tsonfeir, 6 months ago

A lot depends on how the PHP site was set up. Does it have requirements? Apache? What version? MySQL? Is it using a framework? Composer, hopefully?

Theoretically all you need is PHP installed. You can run it from the command line with -S… maybe.

More information would be helpful.

gofsckyourself, 6 months ago

Seconded.

Also, what OS are you on?

For Windows, Laragon is super easy and convenient.

Or Devpod might be a good choice, too.

shnizmuffin, 6 months ago

Here’s hoping you have Docker installed, because Laradock rules. (It’s not just for Laravel.)

If the project is a Laravel project, Laravel Herd just came out. If you’re on a Mac, there’s also Valet. If you prefer a VM, there’s Homestead - a PHP Vagrant config.