Tools to understand website source code

I recently had a website developed by an external source. They gave me the source code as well as sql files.

When I extract the source code I see folders like Smarty, fckeditor and many php files. I want to start editing these as I find it to be the best way to learn. What tool should I use. I tried using trial version of PHPdesigner, but it just doesnt open my php files.

Is there any tool that can take all these files in the form of a project and simultaneously show me a visual display of any changes 开发者_StackOverflowthat I make.

I suppose it is very clear that I am new to this. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Just use simple text editor with some code highlight like Notepad++

It is free to use, very fast and it does what you need.

First of all try to know what are the different file types and which lanuguage are those targeted to. Once you know that you can then decide on the editor.

What i recommend is you try to find out if they used a framework for the website, something like CakePHP or CodeIgniter. The next step after you find out is to go the framework website and start reading the documentation.

If the site id developed in php most likely any type of WYSIWYG editing is going to inaccurate. This is because a number of different files need to be processed and combined by the php interpreter before they come together to make any given page or view. Thus the only way to really preview is to run it on a server. Since you say there are sql files he has laso used a DB to store something so most likely any changes you would need to make are going to be spread between both the php source files and the records in the db.

Aptana (Which is Eclipse based) is great at handling many different file type in one IDE. I would use Studio 2 w/ the plugins you need or if you feel cutting edge try Studio 3. It's cross platform so Linux/Windows or OSX.