PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference

The macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10

[Score: 9 out of 10]

Developer: ARTIS Software / [Product Page]
Price: Free / $8.50 / $16.50

For the third week in a row, this week's pick is related to my work on the future version of macosxhints (which is making great progress, now that I can spend nearly two full days a week on it!). Previously, I touched on a utility to display screen sizes and a CSS editor; this time, it's a handy little PHP reference manual.

PHP is the language that powers the Geeklog engine, which in turn creates the pages you are reading now. Not being a programmer by training, I know just enough about PHP to get myself into trouble. That's where the PHP Function Index comes in. This desktop application lists all the PHP functions and their explanations, directly from the PHP documentation. This information is available for free, of course, on the documentation pages at php.net. The advantage of having the docs in an OS X app, to me anyway, is that you get a nice, non-browser interface with quick searchability and an easy-to-use bookmarking feature (for your often-visited commands).

There are three license levels for the PHP Function Index -- the free version is for users who don't make any money doing PHP development; the $8.50 version is for those who make less than 50% of their income doing PHP coding, and the $16.50 version is for professional PHP coders.

Installation is relatively easy, though you do have to download the documentation yourself (to insure the program has the most current version). I gave it a 9 out of 10 for one reason only -- the online manual has the option to see user-submitted comments, some of which are a great help in further explaining how to use the various commands. As far as I can tell, there's no way to load the user-commented pages into PHP Function Index. Other than that, though, this useful little program helped me muddle through yet another trivial (for a pro!) Geeklog modification...

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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Oops. Link not OK.
Authored by: El_Oy on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 11:26AM PDT

The link directs me to:

http://localhost/www.artissoftware.com%3EARTIS%20Software%3C/a%3E%20/%20%3Ca%20href=

I presume this was not your intention ;-)

PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Authored by: 5chm31din6 on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 11:35AM PDT

The correct link is:
http://www.artissoftware.com/phpfi/

---
_______
Hey Tubbs, I just lost my jengajam!

[ Reply to This | # ]

PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Authored by: moyashi on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 12:29PM PDT

hehe, here's a good review to read too :)

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040407190019282

Another way
Authored by: sierratarn on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 12:43PM PDT

It might lack in the searching department, but I've always made a practice of taking the HTML package (PHP and MySQL) into my Sites directory and then create a local home page that points to the various sets of docs. It lacks in searching but has the ability to be linked to other local (and remote) pages/projects I'm working on for testing.

PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Authored by: alderete on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 4:23PM PDT

The searching seems to work on just the function names, but not the rest of the text in the descriptions. Is there a way to index the entire documentation, and turn up search hits for *all* matches, not just the function names?

PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Authored by: blurble on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 4:57PM PDT

You could also try this free program that does much the same thing: http://www.simulacrum.net.nz/phphelpbrowser.php

PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Authored by: sophistry on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 6:06PM PDT

I rejected this program out of hand because it doesn't include the user-submitted code and comments. I am amazed you gave this a 9 out of 10. For me the lack of comments means it would be a 5.

PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Authored by: robg on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 8:07PM PDT

For me, the comments are somewhat enlightening, but not earth shattering -- that's because I'm strictly a hack at PHP, and mostly just need to find a command to do something.

If I get really stuck, then I'll head out and check the comments, but they're usually way over my head.

That's why it was only worth a -1 to me...

-rob.

PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Authored by: dustox on Thu, Oct 7 2004 at 3:11AM PDT

Interesting to see the value difference. I work in PHP a lot, and often find that the user comments help out a ton. Sometimes they give exactly what I am looking for.

Also, did you know that you can do a quick search of PHP functions by going to php.net/search-term. For example php.net/preg. That's how I do my searching.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Whowhatwherewhenwhy?
Authored by: gourls on Wed, Oct 6 2004 at 6:15PM PDT

Whoa.....excellent.

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-brita

[ Reply to This | # ]

With the group who beleives in lowering the rating
Authored by: tychay on Thu, Oct 7 2004 at 1:40AM PDT

Here is my case...

First of all, php.net supports function listing easily. Just type http://www.php.net/functionname. For instance http://www.php.net/explode/. The cool thing is that you will automagically be redirected to a country mirror.

This is easily added as a search template to a lot of browsers. For instance, if you use LaunchBar, just type -space followed by "php" "explode".

The reason for PHP's success is not that it is a well-designed language (it isn't). But it definitely puts its money where its mouth is... by leveraging the web tools it is used to create. PHP.net is an example of this.

Take care,

terry chay

PHP Lookup Script
Authored by: rbates on Thu, Oct 7 2004 at 12:18PM PDT

On a related note, I use a very simple AppleScript with BBEdit to lookup the selected function name on the PHP site. I assigned the script to a key (F8) using BBEdit's Script palette.


tell application "BBEdit"
	open location "http://www.php.net/" & selection
end tell

Very quick, just double click the function name and hit the key. If the site can't find the function then it displays similar ones (great if you can't remember the exact name). You should be able to do this with any text editor which supports AppleScript.

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