Must-have tools for php developers

The following are tools that are invaluable to any php developer:

1) PHP Development Tools Project (eclipse)

Link: http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/

The PDT project provides a PHP Development Tools framework for the Eclipse platform. This project encompasses all development components necessary to develop PHP and facilitate extensibility. It leverages the existing Web Tools Platform (WTP) and Dynamic Languages Toolkit (DLTK) in providing developers with PHP capabilities.

2) ez_sql/ez_results – mysql wrapper library (Free)

Location: http://www.jvmultimedia.com/portal/

A great mysql library that features:

-Disk caching
-It is one php file that you include at the top of your script. Then, instead of using standard php database functions listed in the php manual, you use a much smaller (and easier) set of ezSQL functions
-It has excellent debug functions making it lightning-fast to see what’s going on in your SQL code
-Most ezSQL functions can return results as Objects, Associative Arrays, or Numerical Arrays
-Works with Smarty templating language

3) Smarty Template Engine (Free)

Location: http://smarty.php.net/

An excellent template engine for php.

One of Smartys primary design goals is to facilitate the separation of application code from presentation. Typically, the application code contains the business logic of your application, written and maintained in PHP code. This code is maintained by programmers. The presentation is the way your content is presented to the end user, which is written and maintained in template files. The templates are maintained by template designers.

4) mysql gui bundle 5.0 (Free)

Link: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html

A suite of GUI tools that includes: MySQL Administrator, MySQL Query Browser, MySQL Migration Toolkit, and MySQL Workbench.

Here is a list of some more tools that can be very helpful for php developers.

Editors

Pnotepad: http://www.pnotepad.org/

Pspad: http://www.pspad.com/

notetab: http://www.notetab.com/

notepad++: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

conTEXT: http://www.context.cx/

php Designer: http://www.mpsoftware.dk/

Dev-PHP: http://devphp.sourceforge.net/

notepad2: http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html

crimson editor: http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

textpad: http://www.textpad.com/

ultraedit (commercial): http://www.ultraedit.com/

Mysql GUI clients

Navicat (commercial) : http://www.navicat.com/

phpmyadmin: http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin/

sqlyog: http://code.google.com/p/sqlyog/

Libraries

Propel: http://propel.phpdb.org/trac/wiki/Users/Introduction

Html purifier (Great for preventing XSS attacks): http://htmlpurifier.org/

Templates/Frameworks

phptal: http://phptal.motion-twin.com/

cakePHP: http://www.cakephp.org/

prado: http://www.xisc.com/

codeIgniter: http://codeigniter.com/

savant: http://phpsavant.com/

bTemplate: http://www.massassi.com/bTemplate/

vLibTemplate: http://vlib.clausvb.de/

Blitz (a php extension): http://alexeyrybak.com/blitz/blitz_en.html

php template engine:
http://www.phpte.com/

fryPHP: http://fry.sourceforge.net/