Setting up your development environment

To write plugins, you need an editor to work with the code, and you need to configure your site to support plugin development.

Editing code

At a minimum, you will want an editor that is built for working with the programming languages that Elgg uses. This could be a text editor such as Textpad++ on Windows or TextWrangler on Macs. (No, Microsoft Word and Notepad are not options.) The text editor should have features such as syntax highlighting and searching through files for a particular pattern.

A better option, especially for those new to PHP or Elgg, is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). An IDE is a collection of tools for working with code. With an IDE, you can edit, run, debug, and test code. Important features of most IDEs are as follows:

• Syntax checking: Why wait to test your code on the server to find out that you forgot to add a semi-colon to a line? IDEs can check your code as you type it and tell you when it is invalid.

• Code navigation...