More IDE-like features for PHP

[zigpress]

I believe that some IDEs (e.g. Eclipse) have a feature (sorry, I don't know what it's called), whereby if you add a class method call in your code, the IDE will check your project and add the correct "use" statements at the top of your file, so that you can use the method without namespacing it each time.

Is this something Pulsar would consider to be within its remit, or maybe there's a package that does this? I'm thinking mainly about PHP since that's my main language.

As a very simple example, let's say I have a WordPress site open in Pulsar because I'm developing a custom plugin. In my plugin folder I have my composer files and vendor folder, and I'm using the "directorytree/imapengine" composer package.

If I add something like

$mailbox = new Mailbox($imap_credentials);

it would be great if a Pulsar package (having indexed my project's code) could add to the top of my file:

use DirectoryTree\ImapEngine\Mailbox;

And if I then add this code:

try {
    $mailbox->connect();
} catch (ImapCommandException $e) {
    ...
} catch (ImapConnectionException $e) {
    ...
}

it would also add:

use DirectoryTree\ImapEngine\Exceptions\ImapCommandException;
use DirectoryTree\ImapEngine\Exceptions\ImapConnectionException;

I think that illustrates what I'm after.

This may be way beyond what an editor like Pulsar can or should be doing. Alternatively, someone may have built a package to do it and I just need to know what it's called!

[savetheclocktower]

EDIT: I ended up publishing pulsar-ide-php to address this gap!

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So this sort of thing is the purview of a language server. Any package that starts with pulsar-ide- (or, perhaps, just ide-) is designed to provide features like this. (An ide-php package exists, but hasn't been updated since the Atom days, so I would be surprised if it worked.)

I have not yet made a pulsar-ide-php — I tried a couple years ago and was not impressed with the offerings. But I just checked a minute ago and things have changed a bit.

The best language server for PHP — the one that is used most often by VS Code users — is Intelephense. Somewhat unusually for language servers, it has a “freemium” model: about half the features you get for free and the other half you have to pay a one-time fee to use.

I could wire up this language server into a package, but the feature you're asking for might cost you $35 USD. Here's why:

A language server will not edit your document without some sort of invoking action. It won't simply happen as you type. The feature you want exists in theory, but it is typically triggered one of two ways:

1. You invoke autocompletion and then pick an option. It is very common in this scenario for a language server to offer you completion suggestions for things that may have to be imported, and for the server to handle adding those imports automatically when you select the option. (TypeScript's language server does this, for instance.)
2. You type out the reference yourself. Some diagnostic check realizes that it doesn't know what that thing refers to and puts a red squiggle under it — but when you put your cursor on the squiggle, you get offered one or more ways of “fixing” the error, and “import this thing” is quite likely to be one of the fixes offered.

I say might because it's hard to tell just from the feature matrix whether this specific feature exists — and, if so, which category it falls under. They say you get “autocompletion” and “diagnostics” for free… but then an add-this-import action could also fall under “code actions,” which are a premium feature.

Whether you pay the $35 or not, Intelephense is probably worth having; best of all, it's not actually written in PHP (which — no disrespect — is not really optimized for this task). I don't remember which PHP language server I tried to integrate last time… except I remember it was written in PHP, so it must not have been Intelephense. I'll see about turning this into a pulsar-ide-php package.

[savetheclocktower]

Aha! Emphasis mine:

Fast camel/underscore case code completion (IntelliSense) for document, workspace and built-in symbols and keywords with automatic addition of use declarations.

[savetheclocktower]

OK, I have confirmed that the autocomplete route does automatically add a use statement. Sadly, I have also confirmed that, without a license key, you are offered no code actions relating to missing imports — so if you've typed it already, you can't automatically add the import just by putting the cursor on the red squiggle and choosing the fix from a menu.

The good news: this issue confirms that this feature is part of the premium offering. So you can have it if you're willing to pay $35.

Bear with me and I'll publish a pulsar-ide-php package either today or imminently that can do what you're asking for.

[savetheclocktower]

@zigpress It's live! There's a new package at pulsar-ide-php that adds some useful features. Be sure to read the README to learn which features you get for free and which ones require the presence of other community packages. This page in the docs (along with the following page) help illustrate the sorts of things that IDE packages can do.

Caveats:

• I have only tested it on a skeleton PHPUnit project (though that was enough to confirm that diagnostics/linting, symbols, and autocompletion worked how I expected them to).
• I have not paid $35 for a license, so I cannot make any guarantees about any of the paywalled functionality. But the mechanism is there to specify a license key, and I've tried to replicate what I see in other editors’ Intelephense integrations. If you do buy an Intelephense license and run into any problems with the new functionality, open an issue and I'll fix it.

Enjoy! Thanks for the question; I should've added a PHP IDE package ages ago, so this was a great excuse to get it off my to-do list.

[zigpress]

I'm... almost speechless. I post a question about a possible "nice to have" and less than a day later there's a brand new package waiting for me to try. Seems I prompted you to create something you've been meaning to for a while, but even so.

I had Intelephense on Zed but it was presumably the free version so I didn't connect the dots about this specific functionality (I wasn't aware there was a premium version).

Sincere thanks for this. I will review the package documentation page, install and use the free version, and once I'm used to how it works, I'll probably pay the $35, seeing as it's a one-off (within current major version) and could be a big quality-of-life improvement.

I'll come back with issues if I find any.

Thanks again 😎

(and well done on the new terminal integration by the way - it sealed the deal for Pulsar becoming my daily driver)

[zigpress]

Unfortunately I can't get it to activate... here's the link to the issue I've raised.

savetheclocktower/pulsar-ide-php#1

[savetheclocktower]

Whoops! Fixed now. Check for updates and install the 0.1.2 version.

[zigpress]

It's all now working very well as far as I can see. I'll consider the Intelephense license to get the extras but it's already good, and I can now finally uninstall Zed. Thanks again.