Native PHP support in Visual Studio 2010?

Question

Is there any truth to the rumor that Visual Studio 2010 will natively support PHP coding?

(http://www.codeplex.com/php4vs)

If not,what are the options?(except VS.php)

Answer 1

komodo is the best multi platform free version out there...

Answer 2

Visual Studio 2010 won't have native PHP support. However, it's "relatively easy" to add some language support to Visual Studio 2010. If all you want is syntax highlighting, auto comment/uncomment, and brace matching, it could be done in one sitting by someone who knows how the new extensibility model works.

After you wrote this post, I started making an add-in to show you what I mean. I downloaded the WordPress source only to note that the .php extension is registered with Expression Web 3, which does support PHP (first image).

My 15 minute attempt at an extension (second image) is not as impressive, but keep in mind I started working on it after I answered this question. Edit: Updated to color keywords/global functions/global objects separately.

Microsoft Expression Web for PHP http://www.280z28.org/images/vsx/ExpressionWebForPhp.png

My PHP extension for Visual Studio 2010 http://www.280z28.org/images/vsx/Vs10SamplePhp2.png

Answer 3

One of my projects has over 30,000 files, that includes however images and other items, in total about 12,000 php and js scripts, VS.php looked at it and barfed. Back to netbeans for now. Netbeans is amazing in what it does including the js support but I HATE java based apps. They are way too slow and fat.

Answer 4

I would recommend PHP Tools for Visual Studio - new PHP integration for VS2010 and VS11.

• syntax highlighting
• IntelliSense (tooltip, function assist, code completion, go to definition,...)
• code navigation
• custom file extensions
• integrated documentation

Its basic features are free, it is fast and stable (preferred for me)

Answer 5

the best solution for true php projects whether small or large is "Zend Studio".

Answer 6

Just use Komodo, they have both free and commercial IDE