Setting up Netbeans

Netbeans has got a good PHP support.

• CVS integration: see all changes, lines deletion, diff in real time
• Ctrl+Click: Go to declaration
• Apply Diff Patch
• Easy navigation
• List of functions
• Code completion
• Instant rename
• HTML, CSS, Javascript support
• MySQL manager
• Quick Search
• Very few bugs

Installation

1. Checkout your Moodle project with a CVS client - see Moodle CVS for developers. I personaly prefer to use an external client in order to realise the CVS Delete operation on my own.

2. Download Netbeans Early Access for PHP

3. Install and run it

4. Open File > New Project > PHP > PHP Application > Next. You're going to set the project now. Name, Location and Folder are used by Netbeans and are not related to the source code. So you can choose whatever you like, except your source folder. Sources has to be your checked out Moodle branch/head folder. The rest is clear enough. Don't forget to choose UTF-8 for Default Encoding.

Example:

         Project Name:        Moodle 1.9 Stable
         Project Location:    C:\Users\jerome\Documents\NetBeansProjects
         Project Folder:      C:\Users\jerome\Documents\NetBeansProjects\Moodle 1.9 Stable
         Project Sources:     C:\Users\jerome\Projects\branch19_STABLE\moodle
         Project URL:         http://localhost/moodle19/
         Index File:          index.php
         Create:              unchecked
         Default Encoding:    UTF-8
         Set as Main Project: unchecked

Click on Finish.

5. You can now start coding.