Useful Tools For Working With Zen Cart
Descriptions of these tools can be found at the individual web sitesPHP, HTML and Text Editors
Freeware
Commercial
- Sublime Text (Windows, Mac, Linux) **RECOMMENDED** deemed by many to be the best!!!!!! (Used by the Zen Cart Dev Team)
- PhpStorm (Windows, Mac, Linux) Full-featured IDE (Used by the Zen Cart Dev Team) (Has free EAP version available)
- BBEdit (Mac)
- Zend Studio Designed for PHP editing by the authors of PHP (Used by the Zen Cart Dev Team)
- UltraEdit (Used by the Zen Cart Dev Team)
Hash Validation Tools
CSS Debuggers
- Firebug **RECOMMENDED** - Along with Chrome Dev Tools, Firebug is probably the most popular useful tool for working out CSS and Ajax/Javascript problems on your site.
- Firefox's Web Developer Extension
- Chrome Developer Tools (built-in to Google Chrome browser)
- The latest versions of the more popular browsers also have built-in "Inspect Element" functionality, which can significantly aid in troubleshooting.
CSS Editors
Freeware
- See Firebug and the Web Developer Extension in the CSS Debuggers section above
- Chrome Developer Tools (built in to Google Chrome browser)
Commercial
Text-Search Tools
Freeware
Commercial
Graphics Editors
Freeware
Screenshot Tools
Freeware
Commercial
Color Pickers
Freeware
Commercial
File Comparison Utility
Freeware
- WinMerge (Windows)
- Kdiff3 (Unix, Windows, Mac)
- P4Merge (Windows, Mac, Linux) (allegedly can do a 4-way compare with git branch conflicts)
Commercial
- Beyond Compare (Windows, Mac, Linux) Offers 3-way comparisons! (Used by the Zen Cart Dev Team)
- Kaleidoscope (Mac)
- Araxis Merge (Windows, Mac) Offers 3-way comparisons (Used by the Zen Cart Dev Team)
- Guiffy (Windows, Mac, Linux) Offers 3-way comparisons!
FTP Tools
Freeware
- WinSCP A great Windows-based secure-FTP program. *RECOMMENDED*
- Note: FileZilla removed from this list because of its frequent security problems.
- FlashFXP (Used by the Zen Cart Dev Team)
- CyberDuck FTP (Mac)
Commercial
We often find folks reporting in the support forum that they have had problems with corrupted uploads or incomplete uploads due to timeouts which have occurred while using SmartFTP and CuteFTP. Thus, we recommend against using those products. BETTER CHOICES: Usually WinSCP and Transmit are found to have no such difficulties whatsoever.File Archiver/Zip/Unzip Utility
Freeware
Commercial
Browser Addons/Utilities
Freeware
Validators
Freeware
Database Manipulation Tools
Freeware
Commercial
Local Web Server for Development Environment
Freeware
Other things
Freeware
External Resources/Tutorials