How to setup a multiuser single dev server work flow with PhpStorm

Question

We are currently using Aptana Studio but we want to switch to PhpStorm. But evaluating PhpStorm I get stucked on a correct work flow, I couldn't find any examples about. So here is our basic environment:

One Debian 7 development server

• The htdocs root folder is accessible through Samba
• Every developer has a SVN working copy of the project in the htdocs root folder
• We don't have fixed workstations for developers (they might loggon on a different Windows machine each day)
• Every windows machine has Aptana Studio (and Ruby for SASS/Compass/Foundation) installed
• They have a windows network drive mapped to their working copy folder on the dev server

This setup worked quite well with Aptana Studio. Every developer could easily update/commit to the SVN repository on the production (and test) server. Through the LAMP running on the development server, they could instantly see there changes (compass was compiled through a build script in Aptana).

Now I tried to work this way with PhpStorm, but some big issues ocurred:

1. Trying to work on the working copy thourgh the mapped network drive is pretty slow (PhpStorm also warns me about that) and I sometimes get SVN network errors
2. Trying to use the recommended setup, where files are downloaded locally and synced with the remote server also didn't worked out

With the second setup I was not able to interact with the repository, as the locally copied files are no SVN working copy.

• Installing a WAMP on every windows machine is not an option
• Using VCS only through a terminal is also no option, as we have some non-developers which requires a GUI
• Using the local copy is also not optimal, as users change clients quite frequently and would have to download all files again (syncing all files into their user profile would also be problematic, as the project is rather large)

I recognized, that a shared folder from one of our windows servers is way more performant than through the Sambs share.

So how would you setup an environment like this for PhpStorm having a fast IDE and still being able to have a single LAMP system for users changing clients each day?

P.S. I would also love to use the development server doing the compass compile, but I could live with the current setup, where every windows client is compiling them.

Answer 1

Try the following setup:

• checkout code from svn on developers machine
• mount development server share on a developer machine as a network drive in windows
• in settings: deployment: set up "local or mounted" folder and point to mounted drive from development server and save it with some name.
• in tools\deployment select "Automatic upload" and choose profile with name from prev point

In this scenario you will have: code on both machines but code scans, autocomplete etc will be done locally. Same goes for VCS operations - they will be locally. On each save, a file will be uploaded to development server - just in time for a browser refresh.

If this is too slow for you then try to optimize smb config.

ps: bonus question: in recent versions of phpstorm there is a possibility to run remote tasks (with ssh) so you can compile using key short-cut.