Key PHP Developer’s Tools

Development Tools

Netbeans – http://www.netbeans.org

Dreamweaver for UI http://www.adobe.com

Flux is good too and much cheaper (OSX Only) http://www.theescapers.com/flux/

TextWrangler for just simple text stuff (OSX Only) http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/

or if you’re a PC person go with Notepad++ http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Filezilla FTP for uploading and downloading to servers http://filezilla-project.org

Google Chrome‘s built in developer tools rock http://chrome.google.com

or Firefox with Web Developer and Firebug Addons installed

Frameworks

The most important thing is, use a framework. Not only does it allow you to work faster, but it also gives you access to a community, as well as forces you to use best coding practices.

Kohana – http://kohanaframework.org (Unofficial Wiki for Samples)

optionally CakePHP is excellent http://www.cakephp.org

optionally CodeIgniter is good – http://codeigniter.com

as is the Zend Framework – http://framework.zend.com/download/current/

JQuery – http://jquery.com

JQuery UI – http://jqueryui.com

Key thing with JQuery is the ThemeRoller!!! – http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/

Also, check out the Hosted JQuery with Google CDN or Microsoft CDN

JQuery plugins

Forms http://jquery.malsup.com/form/

Validation http://bassistance.de/jquery-plugins/jquery-plugin-validation/

Datatables http://www.datatables.net/

qTips2 http://craigsworks.com/projects/qtip2/

Other Misc Javascript

TinyMCE – http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/

Google Closure Compiler for Shrinking Javascript files – http://closure-compiler.appspot.com/home

Source Control

SVN (free) http://www.xp-dev.com

SVN (free) http://www.projectlocker.com

Other Stuff

I also use VirtualBox.org to test with Linux – Here’s a guide to setting it up:

http://ajb.bz/2010/02/installing-a-virtual-lampp-server-with-virtualbox-and-ubuntu/

ConvertIcon for making favicons – http://converticon.com/

Kuler – for making great color choices for your layouts – http://kuler.adobe.com/

W3C Markup Validator – make sure your code is correct http://validator.w3.org/

JSON Parser http://json.parser.online.fr/

What do use as a developer that is missing from this list??? Post a comment below.