PHP-GLFW IDE Setup¶

Once the extension is installed, everything works at runtime, but your editor is still in the dark. PHP-GLFW ships as a compiled C extension, so classes like GL\Math\Vec3, functions like glClear, and constants like GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT never appear in any .php file your IDE can read. Static analysis has nothing to look at, which means no auto-completion, no parameter hints, and no documentation on hover.

The fix is to hand your IDE a set of stubs: plain PHP files that declare the whole API with full docblocks, purely so your editor can index them. This page walks you through it.

Stubs¶

Since PHP-GLFW is a PHP extension, your editor / IDE may not support auto-completion and doc lookups without some help. To address this, we have created a composer package that you can include as a dev dependency to have full support:

composer require --dev phpgl/ide-stubs

The package is a single phpglfw.php file: thousands of empty class, method, function, and constant declarations that mirror the real extension, each carrying the same docblock you see in the reference docs. Your IDE indexes it like any other source file and lights up completion from there.

Note

The stubs are a dev-only dependency. They are never autoloaded and never executed at runtime, they exist solely for your editor. Installing or removing them has no effect on how your program runs.

Visual Studio Code¶

VS Code needs a PHP language server to make sense of the stubs. Install either PHP Intelephense or the official PHP extension, then run the composer command above.

Because the stubs live under vendor/, the language server picks them up automatically once the package is installed, there is nothing to configure. Start typing GL\Math\ or glfw and the completions appear.

Tip

If completion does not show up right away, reload the window (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P -> Developer: Reload Window) so the analyzer re-indexes vendor/.

PhpStorm¶

PhpStorm indexes your project's vendor/ directory out of the box, so after running composer require --dev phpgl/ide-stubs the completions and hover docs are available immediately.

Tip

If PhpStorm keeps showing "undefined" warnings for GL functions after the install, clear the caches with File -> Invalidate Caches / Restart -> Invalidate and Restart to force a fresh re-index.

Without Composer¶

Not every project uses Composer, and that is fine. You can point your IDE at the stub file directly:

Grab stubs/phpglfw.php from the repository.
Drop it anywhere inside your project, for example a top-level stubs/ folder.

Both VS Code and PhpStorm index files in your project tree, so the moment the file lands in the workspace you get the same completion and documentation.

Warning

Keep the standalone stub file out of your runtime include path. It only declares empty symbols, so loading it alongside the real extension would clash with the actual definitions. Storing it in a folder your IDE reads but your application never requires keeps the two apart.

Verifying it works¶

Open any PHP file in your project and start a snippet like this:

$vec = new GL\Math\Vec3(1, 2, 3);
$vec-> // completion should list length(), normalize(), dot(), ...

If you see the method list pop up, and hovering a symbol shows its documentation, you are all set. Your program still runs against the real extension exactly as before, the stubs only ever teach your editor.