Quick Start

The following Quick Start page will help newcomers and (even) our veteran users familiarize themselves with this new version.

The Features covered in the Quick Start are:

Workspaces

Creating a PHP Project

Creating a PHP File

PHP Debugging

Workbench

The Workbench is a window that displays Perspectives, Views and menu bars through which different operations can be performed.

See the Workbench topic in the Workbench User Guide for more on using and customizing the Workbench.

Note:

Additional user guides can be accessed from inside PDT by going to Help | Help Contents, or from the Eclipse Online Documentation site (http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/index.jsp).

Workspaces

Workspaces are the files system location where all your projects are created and stored.

You can use the default Workspace created by PDT or from the menu bar go to File | Switch Workspace | Other to select a different Workspace.

Creating a PHP Project

A project is a group of files and resources which are displayed in a tree in the PHP Explorer view.

To create a new PHP project:

Go to the Menu Bar and select File | New | PHP Project.

-Or- In the PHP Explorer View, right-click and select New | PHP Project.

See Creating PHP Projects for more information.

Creating a PHP File

To create a new PHP file:

Go to the Menu Bar and select File | New | PHP File.

-Or- in PHP Explorer view, right-click the folder in which you want to create your file and select New | PHP File

-Or- click the New PHP File icon on the toolbar . This creates a file outside of a project.

See Creating PHP Files for more information.

PHP Debugging

The Zend Debugger detects and diagnoses errors in PHP code situated on local or remote servers:

To debug a PHP script situated on your workspace:

Set breakpoints at the relevant locations in your script by double-clicking the Marker Bar (located at the left of the editor area) at the relevant line. A blue ball appears to indicate that a breakpoint is set.
From the main menu, select Run | Open Debug Dialog
-Or- right-click the file in PHP Explorer view and select Debug As | Open Debug Dialog.
To create a new configuration, double-click the 'PHP Script' category.

Enter all relevant information and click Apply and Debug.

To debug a PHP Web page situated on a server:

From the main menu, select Run | Open Debug Dialog -or- right-click the file in PHP Explorer view and select Debug As | Open Debug Dialog.
To create a new configuration, double-click the 'PHP Web Page' category.
Enter the required information and click Apply and Debug.

Debugging Preferences can be configured from the Debug Preferences page, which can be accessed from Window | Preferences | PHP | Debug.

See Debugging for more information.

Remote Server Explorer (RSE)

RSE (Remote Server Explorer) provides transparent access to remote resources, including the upload and download of files.

To configure a new connection, open the Servers View, situated at the bottom of the page, click the Connections node and from the right-click menu select New | New Connections.
Use the New Connection dialog to choose the connection type configure your settings and save.

To learn more about working with RSE, see Working with Remote Server Explorer.

Perspectives of Interest

To open a perspective go to Window | Open Perspective, select "Other" to view a full list of perspectives.

PHP (default) - This is the perspective that will open by default in PDT . It allows you to manage and create PHP projects and files.
PHP Debug - Allows you to manage and track the debugging process.
CVS / SVN Repository Exploring - Allows you to manage and view your source control.

See PHP Perspectives and Views for more information.