PhpStorm 2020.1 was released this week, the next major version of the popular PHP IDE environment. The most significant areas of improvement and new features include:
- Out-of-the-box Composer Support
- Improved Type Inference
- PHPUnit Toolbox
- Grazie grammar checking
Composer Improvements
All composer-related dependency management is available as you edit the composer.json file, and much more:
You can create a new composer.json file that is backed by a template to get a new project started quickly.
Editing composer.json in PhpStorm is now quite intelligent: you get auto-complete for packages and versions, quick icons and shortcuts for running composer scripts, and shortcuts for installing/updating packages. PhpStorm now has auto-completion while configuring autoloading.
Navigation improvements include click navigation from composer.json to a vendor folder and URL navigation.
Improved Type Inference
PhpStorm will now highlight redundant @var tags and does a much better job inferring types from foreach loops and array functions like array_map and array_filter.
The editor has also improved the ability to track null types, being more intelligent about when a variable can and cannot be null.
PHPUnit Toolbox
PhpStorm 2020.1 adds inspections and quick fixes that help you avoid errors and upgrade to PHPUnit v9 more easily. You can create a test by moving the cursor over a class and using alt/option + enter to select the “Create new PHP Test” action.
Improved Spelling and Grammar Checking Experience
The new Grazie plugin now ships with PhpStorm by default and includes a much better experience for checking spelling and grammatical errors. You need to do a bit of configuration to use Grazie with PHP Files, which you can find in the preferences at “Editor | Proofreading | Grammar.” The experience of fixing grammar and spelling is just like any other code inspection and fixes.
LightEdit Mode and Zen Mode
A few quality-of-life editor improvements include the LightEdit and Zen modes. PhpStorm is known as a full-blown IDE, but as developers, we constantly need to open and edit one-off files. Now, with the pstorm command line you can open a PHP file with “LiteEdit” mode:
Zen Mode combines Distraction Free mode and Full Screen mode, so you don’t need to toggle both individually:
Learn More
This release has some impressive improvements, and it’s exciting to see the growth around the PHP development ecosystem. We only touched on a few of the highlight features in this release—to learn more, check out the official PhpStorm 2020.1 release post.
If you want a short video walkthrough, check out PhpStorm’s video:
