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Visual Studio Code for development of PHP/JS web-based projects
April 06, 2021

Visual Studio Code for development of PHP/JS web-based projects

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Visual Studio Code

At my company, we use Microsoft Visual Studio Code as one of our IDE options in our development group. We let each developer choose which IDE they prefer. Most often, we are developing with PHP and JS. Microsoft Visual Studio Code is very helpful for its Intellisense, git integration, and debugger. Further, its supported extensions allow for integration with several other third-party applications that can significantly speed up projects on a case-by-case basis. While we use it for PHP and JS development, it supports many other languages as well and really brings in a lot of the feeling of traditional Visual Studio.
  • Intellisense significantly speeds up coding process.
  • Debugger allows for stepping through code and more easily identifying issues.
  • Git integration saves time by not requiring running a separate application or command line.
  • Indexed code allows for better navigation of your repository and libraries when learning new code bases.
  • I personally have some trouble setting up the code linting. I have had a slightly easier time of that with PHP Storm.
  • Sometimes the Intellisense autocomplete seems to be missing functions. I presume this is due to something I have not set up properly within the code repository, but I have yet to figure out why.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Code significantly speeds up the development time on projects large and small.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Code has made it easier for our DevOps team to integrate with a variety of environments and scenarios and saved us time there as well.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Code has helped show more junior members of the development team what is possible with an IDE and made it easier for them to pick up new concepts and paradigms.
Microsoft Visual Studio Code stacks up favorably against PhpStorm for developing PHP- and JS-based web projects. In our company, developers generally choose from one of these two applications, based primarily on personal taste. Both are great for development and debugging our web projects. Since we are not a .Net shop, we do not use Visual Studio IDE much anymore. Microsoft Visual Studio Code provides a lot of the same functionality as Visual Studio IDE and anyone used to that application will find themselves right at home with Microsoft Visual Studio Code.

Do you think Microsoft Visual Studio Code delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Visual Studio Code's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Visual Studio Code live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Visual Studio Code go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Visual Studio Code again?

Yes

Microsoft Visual Studio Code is particularly well suited to larger projects that tie in several libraries. It is especially helpful when needing to discover how a library or a plugin works, as you can easily navigate through the various functions and files and see how they tie together. This is especially helpful when dealing with a mishmash of well structured vs not as well structured code, where things are not always placed where you would expect. It has also helped with large version upgrades (particularly Drupal) where functionality can change drastically and must be knit back into the project.

I would not say there is a coding situation where Microsoft Visual Studio Code is not appropriate. It can be a little bit of overkill on a small, simple HTML project or JS app, but even then you are not losing anything with it. I would not choose to something like Sublime Text in these situations, but I could see why some people would.