Eclipse Helios PDT, PHPEclipse, Smarty and some feelings about it
New eclipse version named Helios has been recently released. Let me share my very early feelings about it as from PHP developer view.
First I downloaded and tried Eclipse Helios PDT version as this Eclipse installation is meant for PHP development.
I’m on Linux so downloading, unpacking zip to new folder. Before first run lets backup workspace folder to be able to run also older version if needed. It never happens but just to be sure ;o)
After first start and confirming workspace, converting workspace and starting of eclipse was really fast. Very happy about it. Installing some more necessary features like Subversive SVN plug-in was smooth and easy. Just this Smarty plug-in ;o( not working in new version, there is no road map for it, no announcements to support new Eclipse release, google discussion was closed due to violating their tems of use ;o)
Well, if I don’t use Smarty I wouldn’t care, but it is must for me, so lets try the alternative. PHP Eclipse plug-in.
I tried apparently not a good idea to uninstall PDT from Eclipse in order to install PHP Eclipse, uninstallation went ok, when Eclipse asked to restart, it didn’t start again. I realize that main Eclipse binary disappeared. I asked to uninstall PDT but that was little too much ;o)
So next steps are:
Download Eclipse Helios classic.
Adding new software source http://phpeclipse.sourceforge.net/update/stable/1.2.x/ installing all features of PHP Eclipse.
Installing Subversive SVN plug-in again. All went like a charm.
After some more tweaking of color highlighting, tag size, some little menu customization all was ready and set up with PHP and Smarty. Ah, not all is perfect again. Javascript support is not working. In .tpl <javascript> html tag is recognized but content is highlighted as normal HTML as well. no JavaScript syntax checking nor code hints.
Its a shame but with Helios I’m not able to make PHP, Smarty, Javascript work all together. So you choose what is more important to you.
And general feeling about Helios? It’s not been long I work with it yet, but its responding faster, and feels more stable.
Check out top 10 features of Helios here: http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2010/06/23/top-10-eclipse-helios-features/
Published by Stan Kuhn in: Off Topic
4 Comments to “Eclipse Helios PDT, PHPEclipse, Smarty and some feelings about it”
So I tried it as well. I’ve got installed Eclipse Helios classic, with phpEclips plugin.. its good that it has some support for smarty (higlighting and basic code completition), but I was expecting better php support. code autocompletition is not as smart as in other plugins. It was missing some basic php functions such as empty(), or isset() .. Maybe I did something wrong. Anyway,I think its worth of trying.
I tried your work-around it works fine, thanks. However have you, by now, found a way to install only the smarty plug-in on a PDT Helios?
unfortunately not. Smarty plugin does not work with Helios. yet.
That’s a shame
I really like the Helios PDT. Since my work is mainly server side coding, I have given up on the smarty plugin and installed the PDT. On the other hand I do have to write some templates now and again. That is why It would be great if there was a way to integrate smarty with the PDT. Thanks again guys!