We’ve walked through the complete process of web development using Eclipse, from development to code storage. The final part would be to deploy your site to a web server. Once again, Eclipse simplifies our work by including several tools that aid us in this process.
The key to deployment in Eclipse is the export function. Eclipse gives us many options in exporting our site. First, we will look at FTP, an old and common method of moving files. WebDAV is an interesting way to upload files using a web server. Secure FTP (SFTP), a protocol similar to FTP, but encrypted, is enjoying immense popularity in this security-conscious age. FTP and WebDAV exports are provided through plug-ins as part of the PHPEclipse package. The Klomp plug-in gives us SFTP export capabilities, and comes bundled with PHPEclipse.
Finally, we will see how Ant, traditionally regarded as a Java tool, can help us in PHP deployment.