Today we’re starting the Early Access Program (EAP) for PhpStorm 2022.1!

The first PhpStorm 2022.1 EAP build introduces the brand-new Notifications tool window, improved Markdown support, new advanced PHP metadata capabilities, and more.

If you’re not familiar with our EAP, here’s a quick recap:

We publish new EAP builds every week and showcase upcoming features.EAP builds are free to use and don’t require a license. You can install the EAP version side by side with your stable version of PhpStorm – there is no need to uninstall it.The Toolbox App is the easiest way to get the EAP builds and keep both your stable and EAP versions up to date.Download builds from the EAP page or receive them automatically in the IDE by selecting Check IDE updates for Early Access Program under Settings/Preferences | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings | Updates.

With that said, let’s take a look at the first portion of the updates in the upcoming 2022.1 release.

New advanced PHP metadata capabilities

As you may know, besides built-in “code awareness” capabilities, PhpStorm also relies on external knowledge of code. This knowledge comes in the form of PHP stubs and the .phpstorm.meta.php file.

Support to magic __call and __callStatic

If your code relies on the magic methods _call or _callStatic, then you could lose code completion for the methods, as they are not defined. 

In this release, you can add the corresponding metadata entry and get autocompletion for such calls.

You can even automatically handle dynamic calls, receiving a specific method name from a parameter value.

Support @|MyClass type

You can now specify union types as @|MyClass — this can improve coding assistance for mocks.

Learn more about other metadata features in the documentation.

New Notifications tool window

We replaced the Event Log instanсe with a new Notifications tool window. We hope it helps you maintain a better overview of notifications from the IDE so you don’t miss anything important.

By default, the new tool window is located in the bottom-right corner of the IDE window. All notifications that appear in it can be divided into two categories: Suggestions and Timeline. Here’s an example of what the Notifications tool window may look like for you:

We will continue working on the Notifications tool window to enhance the overall workflow of receiving and managing suggestions, warnings, reports, and other helpful messages.

Improvements for Markdown

Run commands from Markdown files

README files often describe steps for running an app, listing a bunch of commands to be used. PhpStorm 2022.1 will let you run those commands right from the markdown file – just click on the Run icon in the gutter to the left of the command.

The new option can be managed via Detect commands that can be run right from Markdown files in Preferences / Settings | Languages & Frameworks | Markdown.

Copy code snippet for Markdown

We also added a new Copy code snippet action to Markdown blocks, which will let you quickly copy their contents to the clipboard.

Code reformatting in LightEdit mode

In LightEdit mode, you can quickly edit files without creating or loading the whole project. It is also now possible to reformat your code while in LightEdit mode. To do this, go to Code | Reformat Code in the main menu or press ⌥⌘L / Ctrl+Alt+L.

For more details, see the full list of changes available in the release notes.

Please share your feedback in the comments below, by tweeting @phpstorm, or via our issue tracker.

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