Software Update: PhpStorm 2019.1

JetBrains releases several development environments, such as IntelliJ Idea targeting Java, CLion targeting C and C++, DataGrip targeting SQL and PhpStorm targeting PHP. PhpStorm provides on-the-fly error prevention, autocompletion, code refactoring, and debugging, as well as HTML, CSS, Coffee, and JavaScript capabilities. For an overview of the possibilities, we refer to this page. To use PhpStorm, a license required. For business and home use you will have to pay for it, but if the software is used for education or non-commercial open source projects, the license is free. JetBrains has released PhpStorm 2019.1 and below you can find what has changed in it.

Debug Twig and Blade Templates

Debugging is very effective when you face a nasty bug or dive deep into a codebase. But it’s a nightmare to go through the machine-generated code of compiled templates. With PhpStorm and Xdebug, you can now do step-debugging in original uncompiled .twig and .blade.php files of these two popular template engines. All debugging benefits are available here: see the context, local and global variables, add watches, run step-by-step, and more!

Locate Dead Code

If you’re dealing with a legacy codebase and want to clean up things, a good way to start is removing dead code. Now PhpStorm detects redundant code and highlights classes, class members, and functions that are probably never used. The Unused declaration inspection takes into account dynamic usages of the code, for example via magic methods. To check the report for the whole project, select Code -> Inspect Code….

Refactorings, Intentions & Quick Fixes

String Juggling Toolbox

We’ve added multiple new intentions for manipulating strings. You can now convert string concatenation to interpolation, convert a concatenation or interpolation to a sprintf call, copy a concatenation string to the clipboard, and do many other things. Press Alt+Enter on a string to see the available actions.

Remove Unused Variable

PhpStorm 2019.1 introduces a new quick-fix that helps you get rid of the unused variables that appear in assignments’ or closures’ use lists. The quick-fix is ​​smart enough to detect situations when the assignment expression may have side effects.

Move To Class Refactoring

With the new Move to Class refactoring, you can transit functions or constants to the Class they logically belong to, and PhpStorm will find and modify all usages for you. You can move multiple functions simultaneously by selecting them in Structure tool window.

Method May Be ‘static’ Inspection

If a class has a method that doesn’t use any instance references, PhpStorm will detect it and offer a handy quick-fix: press Alt+Enter on the method, and make it static. All the usages will be updated automatically.

docker

Giant Containers

For interpreters based on Docker Compose, you can now choose between docker-compose run or docker-compose exec for executing containers. If you have a heavy container that you don’t want to restart on each test run, you may reuse it by choosing the docker-compose exec option. Or you can use docker-compose run for lightweight containers or those not working in daemon mode (that is, stopping right after they start).

PHP

Improved Auto Completion

With the help of a special file, .phpstorm.meta.php, PhpStorm is now able to suggest arguments and return values ​​better. This is to cover situations when, instead of some simple type like integer or string, you would like to see a certain set of constants suggested. Or if you expect some function to return a certain constant. You can also improve suggestions in PhpStorm for your library or project by providing your own .phpstorm.meta.php file.

Reworked Imports

We’ve reworked the inspections and intention actions related to namespaces importing and using FQN. The main idea behind them is to avoid qualifiers as much as possible. Now, PhpStorm will let you simply remove a redundant qualifier if possible, or replace it with the corresponding ‘use’ import statement. Also, when you paste some code into a file, PhpStorm will ask to reuse an existing alias.

In PhpStorm 2019.1, the Code Cleanup tool comes with PHP-specific intentions: it can optimize full class name occurrences by either adding the ‘use’ statement or removing the unnecessary part from it. It can also automatically fix code style issues with PHP CS Fixer or PHP_CodeSniffer’s phpcbf. Execute a cleanup before VCS commit, or trigger it manually at any time via Code -> Code Cleanup…..

Web Technologies

as usual, all the features and improvements of WebStorm are available in PhpStormeither out of the box or with free plugins available in the repository.

Updated docs and browser compatibility

The documentation (F1) for CSS properties and HTML tags and attributes now shows up-to-date descriptions and information about the browser support from MDN as well as links to the full MDN articles. Also, to check that all the CSS properties you use are supported in the target browser version, you can enable a new Browser compatibility inspection in preferences.

Improved support for TypeScript in Vue apps

PhpStorm now leverages the TypeScript language service together with its own TypeScript support for TypeScript code in .vue files. This means you’ll now get more accurate type checking and type info, be able to use the quick-fixes provided by the service, and see all the TypeScript errors in the current file in the TypeScript tool window.

New inspections for Angular apps

For Angular applications, PhpStorm adds 17 new inspections that will help you detect Angular-specific errors in your app as you type, and will suggest appropriate quick-fixes. Working both in the TypeScript and template files, these inspections will check your use of bindings, directives, components, and many other things.

New debugger console

Meet the new, improved interactive debugger console in the JavaScript and Node.js debug tool windows! It now displays objects using a tree view, and it supports styling of log messages with CSS and grouping them using console.group() and console.groupEnd(). You can also filter out any type of log messages.

Convert function with Promise to async/await

You can automatically change a function that returns a Promise with .then() and .catch() calls to an async function that uses the async/await syntax. Simply press Alt-Enter on the name of the function and select Convert to async function. This is possible not only in TypeScript files, but also in JavaScript and Flow.

IDE

Recent Locations Popup

In this new navigation popup, you’ll find recently visited code points presented with a context – a couple of lines before and a couple of lines after. All the locations are chronologically ordered in this popup, with the last visited location at the top. To call up the new Recent Locations popup, press Cmd-Shift-E / Ctrl+Shift+E. Type in any text to search within the context.

VCS Improvements

A new ‘Uncheck all’ checkbox for partial Git commits lets you uncheck all the code chunks at once, and then choose the ones you want to commit. In addition, fixup, squash, and cherry-pick actions are now available right in the Git log.

Custom UI Themes

If the default white and Darcula themes are not enough for you, try dark purple or create a custom one! The color of any element of your IDE, from icons to radio buttons to arrows, is now configurable. Fine-tune everything to your liking and save it as a new theme plugin!

Database Tools

The database tools in PhpStorm have got some cool improvements thanks to our colleagues on the DataGrip team:

• Support for new databases: Greenplum, Vertica, and Apache Hive
• Code completion supports combined statements for CREATE and DROP
• Support for DEFINER attributes in MySQL and MariaDB
• Support for the Oracle mode in MariaDB
• You can now set the default folder for a project

Other Improvements:

• New coloring options for primitive parameter types and class members by visibility. You can configure the color scheme in Preferences | Editor | Color Scheme | PHP.
• You can now enable soft-wraps in the editor for specific file types. To do this, open Preferences/Settings | Editor | General and specify the file types in the ‘Soft-wrap files’ field.
• PHPDoc styling configuration is improved: sort use statements, define the order of tags, and customize the number of spaces. To find all the options, go to Preferences | Editor | Code Style | PHP and look for the PHPDoc tab.