A Handy PHP Extension for Visual Studio 2015

I am a bit biased to Visual Studio as it has been my development environment of choice for a while now.  However with the recently released 2015 version, I think the need for me to switch between multiple code editors like Sublime or Dreamweaver is probably going to become for the most part unnecessary.

One main reason (besides my last post about new the native app coding features) for my optimism is a nice little extension I found called PHP Tools for Visual Studio.  This add-on is perfect for developers who code mainly in the Microsoft stack but occasionally have to work with PHP code in WordPress or other PHP-related projects.

PHP Tools is a Visual Studio add-on for editing and debugging PHP programs.
PHP Tools is a Visual Studio add-on for editing and debugging PHP programs.

 

Download PHP Tools for Visual Studio

This extension allows you to use all the common Visual Studio tools for syntax highlighting, formatting and schema validation but extends VS to include full PHP 5.5 support and PHP IntelliSense, code completion and debugging.

Video Overview of PHP Tools for Visual Studio

At the risk of sounding like a commercial for this product, you should be aware that the extension does have a free 30-day trial, but a single developer license does cost $79.