Aptana, the only IDE you’ll ever need for web development

If you work with WordPress or any other CMS platform there will undoubtedly come a time when you need to modify the template files to suit your own needs. Off the shelf templates are a great starting point, but there always seems to be something that could work better if it was tweaked just a little or look a lot better if just one or two little nudges were made to the layout.

If you’ve ever tried modifying the template files in the built-in WordPress theme editor, you’ve probably already run into some pretty significant issues, such as lack of error checking, wonky layouts and poor handling of php code. Editing themes in this manner is nothing short of nightmarish, even for seasoned developers. Another option is to use a decent desktop text editor such as BBEdit for Mac, CodePad for Windows based systems or Gedit or Kate for Linux, but these editors are still lacking in fundamental features that developing in php requires, such as code completion and advanced syntax checking that can keep you from accidentally causing your entire site to go offline due to a missing semicolon or open tag.

Enter Aptana Studio, the only editor you’ll ever need to download. Not only is Aptana rich in all the features that you might need to get your themes and templates up to speed, including syntax checking, code tidying and code completion, but it’s also available in versions for Mac, windows and Linux, which means that even if you work on multiple platforms as I do , you will be working in a nearly identical editing environment on each computer you use, which can increase productivity exponentially.

While Aptana is incredibly feature-rich in the area of code editing, the lack of a WYSIWG editor may be a put off for novice users. My advice in this case is really a preference, but I honestly feel that code should never be edited in a WYSIWYG environment. Visual editors have a nasty habit of reformatting your code. Even the venerable DreamWeaver does so on occasion and these changes can be a nightmare to find and repair if you haven’t noticed them very quickly. Also, if you’re developing template files for a CMS, a visual editor isn’t going to do you much good anyway, as the editor does not have the ability to actually run the code that displays the template.

Aptana shines in other areas of development as well. If you’ve ever wanted to develop an iPhone App, you can with Aptana. The iPhone plugin even supplies a virtual iPhone browser so that you can do preliminary testing in the IDE, not on your iPhone. Once you’ve gotten things working the way you’d like, just install the app. Aptana also offers full support for Adobe air development, Ruby on Rails, Python, and Nokia phones.

Forget your FTP software. Aptana’s built in project manager handles file uploads and full site syncs with ease. this feature was what set DreamWeaver above most other editors, but Aptana Studio has tackled this head on with one of the most robust remote toolkits I’ve seen.

If you’ve been looking for a good, solid, robust and reliable development IDE, Aptana might just be the one you need to look into. The professional edition does come at a cost, but unless you work as part of a large development team, i doubt you will ever need to use the features provided by Aptana studio Pro. The Free Standalone edition will work just fine for you.

But hey, I’m just a satisfied customer. I love Aptana so much that it’s installed on every one of my computers. (though it is mind numbingly slow on my micro-notebook). Everyone has their own personal preferences in a development environment. I know people who happily develop web templates using Microsoft Word, though why in the world they would do that is far beyond my capability to understand. (And their sites rarely work properly.)

Try Aptana for yourself. I really do think that you’ll fall in love with it. And just in case you’re wondering, no one is paying me to write this. I’m an Aptana evangelist and I’m on a mission to get everyone who has ever needed to work on a php file to give it a shot. The more people that use it, the better it will become, as the developers will have more motivation to build bigger, better, badder versions of the software.

That’s all for now kiddies. I’ll get back on the ball and get more posted in the next few days, now that I’ve shaken the funk that I’ve been in through most of the Holidays. There were a lot of reasons for it, but I’m back and I want o start the new year of with a bang!

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