Eclipse gives you that option, to easily and simply get everything you need, and nothing more. In my verrsion of Eclipse I start with Eclipse PDT, which stands for PHP Development Tools. It comes with the Web Tools Platform which includes Server Tools and an Ajax Framework. So now that I have my base setup, I will install some plugins via the handy-dandy and simple update manager in Eclipse. The first plugin is Subclipse which is a nifty Subversion client to go with the built in CVS client. Also to go with PHP I add Python support with PyDev and lastly I have SFTP support incase I need to jump onto a server and change something so I use JCrafts SFTP plugin for that.

Some tools I have read about that sound cool, and interesting, but I have personally never used are Zends Community Server Edition and their PHP Debugger, which both perfectly integrate with the Tools in PDT. And if you need anymore tools just Google it, I bet you someone has made a plugin for it. Thats what great about Eclipse, you build it, your way.

UPDATE

I tried something new today, I hadn’t been liking JCrafts SFTP plugin, it required me to export updates everytime I saved so I would use a built in “Remote Systems Explorer“. That had some errors in my PDT installation so I went and got a standard Java version from Eclipse.org, and installed RSE on the regular version. Now to get my PHP tools back follow the steps here to get the PHP tools on your version. And continue on like normal! This SFTP client is a one that works just like it’s a project instead of having to do a lot of work. Also Remote Systems Explorer does a lot more like Shell and stuff… garsh now it’s starting to sound like Coda.