PHP: PHP Programming on Windows using JetBrains PhpStorm and local PHP

Here’s some steps which may help somebody else install PHP on their Windows machine to run alongside JetBrain’s PhpStorm for PHPUnit testing

• Download Windows PHP from http://windows.php.net/download/ . I selected PHP 5.3.8 ‘s VC9 x86 Thread Safe (2011-Aug-23 12:01:10) Installer.
• Install, with no web server configurations, to C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP
• Download the appropriate APC module from http://downloads.php.net/pierre/ to match your PHP version. I picked: http://downloads.php.net/pierre/php_apc-3.1.5-5.3-vc9-x86.zip
• Copy the enclosed php_apc.dll from that .zip file to C:\program files\x86\PHP\ext
• Download the appropriate XDebug module from http://xdebug.org/download.php to match your PHP version. I picked: http://xdebug.org/files/php_xdebug-2.1.2-5.3-vc9.dll
• Save the file to c:\program files\x96\PHP\ext (I had to save it as c:\users\richyc and then, from my administrator command prompt (see below) do “cp c:\users\richyc\php_xdebug-2.1.2-5.3-vc9.dll.dll “c:\program files (x86)\php\ext”)
• Start a command prompt, cmd.exe, with administration rights (Windows->Search->cmd.exe right click and then “Run as administrator”)
• In the command prompt, enter the following:
  cd “c:\program files (x86)\php\pear”
  php go-pear.phar
  Are you install a system-wide PEAR or a local copy? system
  Accept all defaults
  pear upgrade pear
  pear config-set auto_discover 1
  pecl channel-update pecl.php.net
  pecl config-set php_suffix .exe
  pecl install channel://pecl.php.net/dbus-0.1.1
  pear install channel://pear.php.net/HTTP_REQUEST2-2.0.0RC2 channel://pear.php.net/Net_URL2-0.3.1 pear/XML_RPC2
  pear install pear.phpunit.de/PHPUnit phpunit/DbUnit phpunit/PHPUnit_Selenium phpunit/PHPUnit_Story phpunit/PHP_Invoker
  echo extension = php_apc.dll >> ../php.ini
  echo zend_extension = “C:\program files (x86)\php\ext\php_xdebug-2.1.2-5.3-vc9.dll” >> ../php.ini
  echo xdebug.remote_enable=1 >> ../php.ini
  echo xdebug.remote_host=localhost >> ../php.ini
  echo xdebug.remote_port=9000 >> ../php.ini
  echo date.timezone = “Etc/UTC” >> ../php.ini
• To test from the command prompt, just try php -m. You should see apc and xdebug (twice) listed.

Now PHP is configured, we need to configure JetBrain’s PHPStorm to use it:

• Load PHPStorm
• Open or create your project
• Go to File->Settings->PHP
• In the PHP home section, enter: C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP and select “Xdebug” as your debugger
• Select “Update include paths”
• Select PHP->Debug->Xdebug proxy
• Enter Host: localhost and port: 9000. Leave “IDE Key” empty