What’s New in PhpStorm 2016.3

Support of Docker in Remote Interpreters

Now Docker can be added as a remote PHP interpreter in PhpStorm. It’s easier than ever to set up the development environment with Docker and start PHP Scripts, PHPUnit, Behat, PhpSpec tests, PHP CodeSniffer or PHP Mess Detector inside Docker containers.

PHPSpec support

PhpStorm 2016.3 adds support for PHPSpec. Now when you are working with PHPSpec in PhpStorm, you will have code completion, navigation and proper inspections helping you work with code. We’ve also added PHPSpec run configurations, so you can run your PHPSpec easily with PhpStorm.

Auto-detection and configuration of PHPUnit, Behat, PHPSpec

Setting up PHPUnit, Behat and PhpSpec for your project becomes incredibly easy. Now these test frameworks will be detected from composer.json, and you will get a popup tooltip suggesting to configure them automatically.

Semantic highlighting for variables and parameters

Semantic highlighting, previously introduced in KDevelop and some other IDEs, is now available in PhpStorm. It extends standard syntax highlighting with unique colors for each parameter and local variable. You can turn this feature on at Settings|Editor|Colors and Fonts|Language Defaults|Semantic highlighting.

Сompletion of overridden methods and fields

In PhpStorm 2016.3 you can complete overridden methods and fields without function and var keywords. After invoking completion you will see a method and a field available to override.

Improved support of PSR-0/PSR-4

Create new test and Create new class have been improved: now they take into account PSR-0/PSR-4 and allow generation of new folders. Also, if you have a folder marked as Test Source Root, it will be picked up automatically in the directory field while creating a new test.

Support of class_alias

PhpStorm 2016.3 brings a support of class_alias, which is now defined in PhpStorm and works in accordance with PHP documentation.

Project wide PHP 7 strict types

The Missing Strict Types Declaration inspection checks whether the declare is present in a file. It gives a warning when declare(strict_types=1); is missing as the first line of the file. Then a related intention allows you to fix this across the whole project, which is especially handy while converting a whole project to PHP 7 with enabled strict types.

PHP 7 Support in PhpStorm

New naming convention inspections

In PhpStorm 2016.3 we’ve added a pack of new inspections for code style. These inspections highlight those classes/function/methods/variables-constants which don’t follow naming convention in current project.

Improved Runtime Error Prevention

In PhpStorm 2016.3 the runtime error prevention has been reworked significantly. It became much smarter and in many cases where PhpStorm was previously unable to detect errors, now you will be notified about it by highlighting the code without even running the code.

Opening multiple projects in one frame

In PhpStorm 2016.3 it becomes possible to open several projects in one frame by attaching/detaching a project to/from the current one. This means you can work with multiple projects without window-switching and performs cross-project refactorings.

Version Control

Version Control comes with the following changes:

• Improved ergonomics and speed of VCS Log
• The Merge dialog now shows a Resolve icon on the left side of the Editor when the IDE is capable of resolving the conflict automatically
• Syntax highlighting enabled in the Diff and Merge dialogs
• An interface for managing Git remotes in the project

Flow support

You can now see type errors reported by Flow, a static type checking system, right in the PhpStorm editor as you work with your code, without having to save files. You can also use code completion results provided by Flow.

Better TypeScript Support

TypeScript code analysis and completion are now powered by the TypeScript language service, thanks to which the errors reported in the editor are now consistent with the compiler. PhpStorm also provides additional powerful refactorings and intentions.

Stylelint

Don’t miss any errors in your stylesheets thanks to integration with Stylelint, a CSS linter. In addition to the built-in PhpStorm inspections, you can now see the errors reported by Stylelint right in the editor.

Improvements in Database tools

Database tools in PhpStorm have been improved thanks to our colleagues on the JetBrains DataGrip team:

• Possibility to edit several similar cells at once
• Integration with mysqldump and pg_dump utilities
• Now changes made in the Table Editor are stored locally and submitted in bulk (via Ctrl+Enter). Not submitted yet changes can be canceled via Ctrl+Z.