Joomla!

Use PhpStorm as an IDE for Joomla! development.

Before you start

Download Joomla!

Download and install Joomla!.

Enable the Joomla! plugin

This functionality relies on the Joomla! plugin, which is bundled and enabled in PhpStorm by default. If the relevant features aren't available, make sure that you didn't disable the plugin.

Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.
Open the Installed tab, find the Joomla! plugin, and select the checkbox next to the plugin name.

Joomla! support

Joomla! support includes:

Ability to create a new project.
JHTML::_($argument), JText::_($argument), JText::script(), JText::sprintf(); support.
When JHTML::_($argument) is used, PhpStorm navigates with Ctrl+Click on the first argument to the corresponding class or method.
For example, consider the following code:
<?php $options[] = JHtml::_('select.option', $eid, $extension_name);
Ctrl+Click on select.option leads to navigation to the option method of the class select.
When all the other constructs are used, PhpStorm navigates with Ctrl+Click on the first argument to the corresponding property in the .ini file. For example, in the code
$msg = JText::sprintf('COM_INSTALLER_INSTALL_ERROR', JText::_('COM_INSTALLER_TYPE_TYPE_' . strtoupper($package['type'])));
Ctrl+Click on 'COM_INSTALLER_INSTALL_ERROR' leads to navigation to the property 'COM_INSTALLER_INSTALL_ERROR' in the file en-GB.com_installer.ini.
Joomla! code style can be selected for the code in the PHP page of the Editor settings, when clicking the link Set from.
PhpStorm detects Joomla when opening a Joomla! module/plugin/extension or a Joomla! root folder, and suggests enabling Joomla! support, and adjusting namespaces.
DocBlocks standards for PHP files, classes, class properties, and so on. When Joomla! support is recognized, PhpStorm suggests installing DocBlocks:
PhpStorm suggests importing the Joomla! code style. See section Configure Joomla! support
PhpStorm detects databases in projects. Click in the Database tool window tool window and choose Import from sources... The settings specified in the file configuration.php are detected and used for the new data source connection.
PhpStorm provides database prefixes support and changes #__ to the prefix that is defined in the $dbprefix field in the configuration.php file.
It is worth noting that a database dialect should be selected on the SQL Dialects page of the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S). Note also that the type of the selected dialect should match your database type.

Last modified: 16 September 2022