What is RadPHP XE2?

RadPHP™ XE2 provides the fastest way to build Web, Facebook®, and mobile applications with the only visual PHP framework and IDE that supports Web and mobile deployment. RadPHP XE2 offers nearly 200 drag-and-drop components for building UIs, displaying and interacting with data and services such as Google maps and Facebook, along with integrated coding, debugging, performance profiling, and database connectivity.

What are some of the key benefits of RadPHP XE2?

If you're wondering why you should consider RadPHP XE2 compared to another PHP editor, here are some of the key benefits.

• Faster development – using the drag-and-drop visual design capabilities of RadPHP, you can build PHP web, Facebook and mobile applications faster than ever before
• Easier to build data driven applications – RadPHP standardizes database connectivity and includes a collection of pre-build database components that make it much simpler to build apps that connect to databases
• Reusability – there are millions of lines of open source PHP code available today, but how do you leverage that vast resource in your applications? RadPHP provides an easy framework for packaging any PHP or JavaScript source code into reusable visual and non-visual components that can be visually assembled with other PHP components in the RadPHP IDE and easily programmed with familiar properties, methods, and events.
• Flexible options for creating mobile applications – with RadPHP you can create mobile optimized web sites and pages that display nicely on mobile devices. You can also package up your PHP web applications, incorporate interactivity with mobile device features, and distribute your applications via the Apple and Android stores.
• Ability to create AJAX enabled web sites – AJAX is a popular method for building dynamic web 2.0 sites and RadPHP includes AJAX-enabled components to help you on your way to building modern looking interactive web sites. Additionally, AJAX enablement is built into the core of the RadPHP component framework, so you can add AJAX capabilities to virtually any PHP code.
• Consistency – the RadPHP Component Library provides a consistent representation of PHP components so you can easily access and work with properties and events
• All-in-one solution – RadPHP includes a comprehensive set of tools for visual design, editing code, debugging, profiling, database connectivity and more; all in an integrated environment that's intuitive and easy to use
• Flexibility – both the IDE and the component library provide a high level of flexibility. The IDE is customizable to meet your programming style; everything from colors and keyboard mappings to language and encodings

The RadPHP Component Developer's Guide shows you how you can extend the RadPHP component library with new components and you can even contribute your components to the RadPHP open source project to benefit other developers.

What's new in RadPHP XE2?

RadPHP XE2 brings exciting new features and enhancements for Web and mobile development. New and enhanced features include:

• New! Build mobile-optimized touch-friendly web applications for most mobile devices in the market
• New! Visual mobile designer to see how the app will look on the real device
• New! Convert PHP apps into native mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Blackberry
• New! Create mobile applications that interact with device hardware, like GPS, accelerometer and camera
• New! 35+ new Zend Framework components

Is RadPHP same as Delphi for PHP?

Earlier versions of RadPHP were named PHP. The name was changed to RadPHP to focus on the key values of rapid application development for PHP and the web and to differentiate it from Delphi XE2.

What is PHP?

PHP is a widely used open source Web Scripting language that is frequently used by web developers for the creation of forums and web applications because it helps them create dynamic web applications with solid database connectivity.

Does RadPHP have the same functionality as Delphi?

RadPHP brings some of the functionality of Delphi for Windows to PHP development but the two products do not share the same feature sets or underlying technologies. In Delphi for Windows developers program in Object Pascal with a Windows based framework and produce natively compiled Windows applications. In RadPHP developers program in PHP (and optionally in JavaScript/AJAX) can use any PHP source code, and develop with 100% PHP based visual component framework producing dynamic Web applications that can run on any PHP supported operating systems and Web Servers including Apache and IIS and Windows and Linux.

Are there multiple editions available like Professional, Enterprise and Architect?

There is only a one edition available.

How is RadPHP XE2 different from other PHP development tools?

RadPHP is the only visual Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment for PHP. Other development environments may include a visual HTML designer but only RadPHP provides a visual designer that incorporates HTML and HTML templates with visual PHP components that you can drag and drop to create user interfaces and database connectivity. It also has an integrated component class library lets developers quickly and visually create PHP web applications and integrate PHP open source packages, source code and components.

Are there localized editions of RadPHP for languages other than English?

RadPHP XE2 includes an open localization architecture that allows the IDE strings to be localized and the language can be changed using a drop-down menu item in the IDE under Tools | Options. We plan to ship the product with IDE strings for English, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese that have been provided by the RadPHP community. We look forward to the RadPHP community making additional translations available. RadPHP XE2 includes with English IDE documentation. The RadPHP community is welcome to help localize the IDE documentation via our online documentation wiki. The product includes an option at install time to install localized PHP language documentation.

What is the RPCL?

The RadPHP Component Library (RPCL) is a class library that wraps open source PHP scripts and libraries, including qooxdoo, ADOdb, DynAPI, Smarty, xajax and JSCalendar and others to create a visual component library that supports drag-and-drop visual development of PHP applications. Inspired by the Delphi for Windows VCL, the component architecture is 100 percent written in PHP. Developers can create and integrate components into the IDE and extend the existing components to fit their needs. The component library also includes components for the Zend Framework, Facebook and Google Maps. The RadPHP Component library was known as the VCL for PHP in earlier versions.

Where is the component library open source project hosted?

The open source project is hosted on SourceForge at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/rpcl/.

Does RadPHP include any additional software?

RadPHP includes a developer edition of InterBase® XE that enables developers to create and test their application with the InterBase database before deployment. Deploying an application that uses InterBase for its database requires the purchase of InterBase licenses.

Which versions of RadPHP and Delphi for PHP are currently supported?

See the Supported Versions List for the latest information by version.