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Integrating FirePHP for Ajax Development
As mentioned in a previous post I wrote a column for php|architect about how FirePHP can be used for Ajax development. I am re-publishing the complete article here. Enjoy!

FirePHP for Ajax Development

There are many integrated development environments and tools available to aid in building Web 2.0 AJAX applications with PHP, but nothing comes close to the ease of use and tight Firebug integration that FirePHP provides.
PHP: 5.2+
Other software: Firefox, Firebug
Useful/Related links:

My purpose in this column is to introduce you to FirePHP, the problem it solves, and how it is intended to work within your application for maximum benefit. I will present some useful high-level knowledge to make it easier for you to integrate FirePHP into your application.

This is not a step-by-step tutorial. I have made a complete demo available for download, along with some useful libraries illustrating all the concepts covered here. I want to emphasize that the demo is only one possible implementation. There are many other possibilities.

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A case for an AJAX-based Eclipse Project Explorer

Integrated Development Environments in general and Eclipse/Aptana Studio specifically provide tree-based project explorers used to locate and launch files by displaying the file system that contains your project code. Typically the simple directory and file tree is marked up with:

  • Icons for different file extensions
  • Version information about the directories and files if connected to a version control system
  • Context menus specific to each directory and file

This widely accepted approach to represent code files in a project has worked well in the past because projects and project components were typically:

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