http://blog.limedomains.com/2010/06/02/15-useful-php-tools/

Debugging Tools

•    Xdebug: It is one of the most popular debugging PHP extensions. This tool provides tons of useful data that enable you to quickly find bugs in your source code. The tool plugs into many of the most popular PHP applications, such as PHPEclipse and phpDesigner.

•    DBG: This is a robust PHP debugger that is used for local and remote PHP debugging. DBG can be used easily with the command line and also plugs into numerous PHP IDE’s.

•    MacGDBp: This live PHP debugger application is used for Mac OS. It offers features like the ability to step through your code and set breakpoints.

Documentation Tools

•    phpDocumentor: This is a documentation tool for your PHP source code. It possesses features like ability to produce output in HTML, PDF, CHM and XML DocBook formats, and has both a Web-based and command-line interface and source-code highlighting.

•    PHP DOX: This is an AJAX-powered PHP documentation search engine that allows you to search titles from all PHP documentation pages.

Testing and Optimization Tools

•    PHP_CodeSniffer: This PHP 5 script tool is used for maintaining uniform coding styles for large projects and teams.

•    PHPUnit: This tool helps you test your Web application’s stability and scalability.

•    dBug: This tool is used for producing data tables that contain information about classes and objects, arrays, database resources and XML resources, making it useful for debugging purposes.

Security Tools

•    Scavenger: This is an open-source, management tool that helps system administrators track vulnerability findings and review accepted and false-positive answered vulnerabilities.

•    Securimage: It is an open-source PHP CAPTCHA script that is useful for generating complex images and CAPTCHA codes, helping you protect the forms from spam and abuse.

•   Pixy: PHP Security Scanner: It is a Java program that performs automatic scans of PHP 4 source code. It is used for detecting XSS and SQL injection vulnerabilities. Pixy takes a PHP program as input and creates a report that lists all the possible vulnerable points in the program.

Useful Extensions, Utilities and Classes

•    SimplePie: This is a PHP class that helps you work with RSS feeds.

•    TCPDF: This open-source PHP class is used for generating PDF documents.

•   phpMyAdmin: It is a Web-based tool for managing, building, importing, and exporting MySQL databases.

•    PHPExcel: It is a set of useful PHP classes that is used for working with Microsoft Excel files. PHPExcel enables you read Excel files and write to them.

We hope that these tools will enable you in enhancing your programming work flow. Please share your suggestions and feedback with us.