Development Environments

Note: This page is old. Really old. Needs to be rewritten to explain how to set up a git-based version of MODX properly for development.

Recommended Development Tools and Environments for MODX Revolution

In developing MODX, the team has found the following software and environments invaluable:

Eclipse 3.2.+ (recommend latest 3.5.1)
Web Standard Tools Project (WST) 2.0.1 (http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/updates/)
eGit
PHPEclipse 1.2.3 (http://update.phpeclipse.net/update/nightly)
Spket IDE 1.6.18 (http://spket.com/update/)

Simply install the latest Eclipse Classic
Start up eclipse / select a workspace
Use the Install Software option under the help menu
Right click and copy each of the links above (doing them in order doesn't hurt)
Click the "Add" button
Name the "repo" WST, Subclipse, PHPEclipse, or Spket, as it relates to the URL
Paste the URL
Click OK
Repeat for each of the links above as necessary
Individual notes:
- WST - select the latest Web Tools Platform (takes quite a while)
- Subclipse - simply install the Subclipse option
- PHPEclipse - install everything offered
- Spket - Install everything offered

For Mac:

For PC:

For Linux:

We also use MacPorts, XAMPP and MAMP, and the following tools/libraries in the development of MODX Revolution:

PHPUnit - this drives the PHP 5.1+ unit testing framework for xPDO, and we'll be adding a more robust test harness to MODX soon
PHPDocumentor - all of the classes in MODX Revolution are documented in PHPDoc format, and we'll be developing tutorials and other extended documentation for inclusion in the PHPDocs in DocBook XML format
Phing - will be used to allow automation of nightly builds, various distribution builds, unit testing, and many other development tasks