PHP docs-to-go is a free Chrome add-on that downloads PHP documentation to your PC that you can refer to, even when you are offline. You can refer to the functions, variable types, operators, classes etc., by browsing through the index or you can ever search for a function, keyword or any other topic you want to refer to.
This offline PHP documentation plugin presents information in a well organized way and suggestions for similar functions are also provided. This seems very similar to the online PHP documentation available online on the PHP’s website. It also provides you with other user’s comments to provide you with more information about the function you’re referring to.
PHP docs-to-go is an add-on that will make the php documentation available to you right in your favorite Google Chrome browser. Just like the regular PHP offline or the online documentation, you can browse through index to choose your topic you want to refer to.
Search for a function
You can type the name of the function you want to know about and click the “Search” button to look for all the function in this free PHP documentation for Chrome. It displays the information just like the online PHP documentation available on the website. It shows you the description, parameters required to use the function, example with regards to the usage of the function, mode i.e., any additional information you require to use the function, return values for the function if any and also shows you the category the function you’re referring to, belongs to. It also lets you know about the important changes made to the function since the new release of PHP.
Suggestions
I was actually looking for a function named “fopen()” to write some text to a specific stream. But, this PHP docs-to-go suggested me to check out some of the other similar function that could be useful to me. If I am opening a file then I want to close the handle to it once I use it so the “fclose()” function suggested to me by this PHP documentation was useful.
User Contributed Notes
Wouldn’t it be nice to see what other user have to say about the usage of the function you’re searching for? This PHP documentation does exactly the same. It shows your the notes from other users. This, most of the times, is very useful as they would warn you about the function parameters that are not supposed to be used, some bugs that they found while using the functions and you notice that you were heading the same way. You could also come up with comments that would let you know how the functions you’re using in your script would affect other files and normal functioning of the operating system. It is often useful, especially for beginners who are learning how to program with PHP.
If you want to add a comment to the online PHP documentation and inform other users who are referring to a specific function, you can visit php.net and scroll down to the end of the page and add a comment.
Conclusion
PHP docs-to-go makes your favorite PHP documentation available offline. Now you don’t need to go online to refer to PHP documentation. You can of course, download an offline PHP documentation in a .HTML or .CHM format; however, it would be more convenient for you to get the PHP documentation. It is a must have tool for beginners and developers because at some point you might want to refer to the php documentation offline.
