Configuring Eclipse

The following has been updated for the RC4 of pdt!

This describes how to configure Eclipse to play nicely with Drupal.

You will need to configure either PHP Development Tools (PDT) or PHPeclipse, depending on what you have installed. In addition, you should configure both Web Development Tools and Drupal-friendly CVS settings.

For either editor

Make the following changes under Window -> Preferences (Eclipse -> Preferences on Mac):

1. In the left-hand menu click on General -> Editors -> Text Editors:
   • Check Insert spaces for tabs.
2. In the left-hand menu click on General -> Workspace
   • Check Text file encoding and select Other : UTF-8
   • Check New text file line delimiter and select Other: Unix.

For PHP Development Tools (PDT) - PHP editing

This is the official Eclipse project developed by Zend at http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/.

We need to ensure that tab/indent inserts two spaces, and also that .inc, .module, .engine, .theme and .install files are recognized as PHP files.

Make the following changes under Window -> Preferences (Eclipse -> Preferences on Mac):

1. Expand the left-hand menu to General -> Content Types:
   • Under Content types on the right, click Text -> PHP Content Type.
   • Add the *.engine, *.theme, *.install, *.inc, *.module and *.test file types.
2. In the left-hand menu click on PHP -> Code Style -> Formatter:
   • Set Tab policy: Spaces.
   • Set Indentation size to 2.

For PHPeclipse - PHP editing

The community developer project is at http://www.phpeclipse.net/.

We need to ensure that tab/indent inserts two spaces, and also that .inc, .module, .engine, .theme and .install files are recognised as PHP files.

Make the following changes under Window -> Preferences (Eclipse -> Preferences on Mac):

1. Expand the left-hand menu to General -> Content Types:
   • Under Content types on the right, click Text -> PHP Source File.
   • Add the *.engine, *.theme, *.install, *.inc, *.test, and *.module file types.
2. In the left-hand menu click on PHPeclipse -> PHP:
   • In the Typing tab, make sure the Insert Spaces for Tab setting is checked.
   • In the Appearance tab, it is recommended that you leave the Displayed tab width at 4, so it is easier to spot if any (actual) tabs have snuck in.
3. In the left-hand menu click on PHPeclipse -> PHP -> Formatter:
   • In the Style tab, enter 2 for Number of spaces representing a tab.
   • Compact Assignment and Indentation is represented by a tab should both be unchecked.

For Eclipse Web Tools - CSS, JS, XML and (X)HTML editing

This is used in addition to the PDE and PHPeclipse projects and deals with web format files.

Make the following changes under Window -> Preferences:

1. Expand the left-hand menu to Web -> CSS Files -> Editor:
   • Select Indent using spaces.
   • Set Indentation size to 2.
2. Expand the left-hand menu to General-> Editors -> Text Editors:
   • Select Displayed tab width.
   • Set Indentation size to 2.
3. Expand the left-hand menu to Web -> HTML Files -> Editor:
   • Select Indent using spaces.
   • Set Indentation size to 2.
4. Expand the left-hand menu to XML -> XML Files -> Editor:
   • Select Indent using spaces.
   • Set Indentation size to 2.
5. If you use XTemplate: expand the left-hand menu to General -> Content Types -> Text -> HTML:
   • Add the *.xtmpl file type.

For Aptana

An Eclipse based IDE (or Eclipse extension) for editing PHP, CSS, xHTML, JavaScript and the like.

Make the following changes under Window -> Preferences:

1. Expand the left-hand menu to General -> Editors -> Text Editor:
   • Enter 2 for Displayed tab width.
2. Expand the left-hand menu to Aptana -> Editors:
   • Under Tab Insertion on the right, click Use Spaces.
   • If current width is not set to 2, click the edit link.

For Drupal CVS friendly patch creation

You should only need to set these if you are use Windows. These settings ensure that if you upload files to Drupal.org, or create patches to upload they are in the standardized format (UTF-8, Unix line endings, and CVS -kkv mode).

Make the following changes under Window -> Preferences:

1. Expand the left-hand menu to General ->Workspace:
   • Set Text file encoding to UTF-8.
   • Set New text file line delimiter to Unix.
2. Expand the left-hand menu to Team -> CVS:
   • Click on the Files and Folders tab.
   • Set the Default text mode dropdown to ASCII with keyword expansion (-kkv).
   • Disable the Convert text files to use platform line ending checkbox.

When it's working, the PHP syntax checker and highlighter will save you hours of debug time. :)

See also

Eclipse IDE Setup for debugging
Eclipse and CVS
IBM DeveloperWorks article on setting up Eclipse + Drupal