External tools
You can define third-party applications as external tools and run them from PhpStorm.
PhpStorm allows you to pass contextual information from your project to the external tool as command-line arguments (for example, the currently selected file or the project source path), view the output produced by the tool, configure to launch the tool before a run/debug configuration, and more.
There are several types of external tools that you can add to PhpStorm:
Local tools are applications that run locally on your computer.
Remote tools are applications executed on a remote server over SSH.
Add a local external tool
This example demonstrates how to add OptiPNG as an external tool and use it to optimize images in your project.
In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Tools | External Tools.
Click
and specify the following settings:
Name: The name of the tool that will be displayed in the PhpStorm interface.
Group: The name of the group to which the tool belongs. You can select an existing group or type the name of a new group.
Description: A meaningful description of the tool.
Program: The path to the application executable file.
Arguments: The arguments passed to the executable file, as you would specify them on the command line.
Working directory: The path to the current working directory from which the tool is executed.
In our case,
OptiPNG
will be run with the-o4 $FilePath$
arguments. You can use macros that can refer to the project name, the current file path, a path to the PHP executable, and so on. Clickingwill open the Macros dialog that lists all available macros and their values.
Click OK to add the tool and then apply the changes.
Run the added local external tool
To open the selected file in the newly added tool image, do one of the following:
From the main menu, select
.Right-click a file in the Project tool window and select from the context menu.
In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Keymap, find the Optimize PNG action under the External Tools node, and assign a shortcut for it. Use the shortcut to run the tool.
When the tool runs, the output is displayed in the Run tool window:

Add a remote external tool
Remote SSH external tools are configured similarly to local external tools, but also define the remote server on which they are executed and require credentials for connecting to it via SSH. For details on working with the built-in SSH terminal, see Run SSH terminal.
This example demonstrates how to add date
as a remote SSH external tool that is executed on a remote server and returns the current date and time on it.
In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Tools | Remote SSH External Tools.
Click
and specify the following settings:
This dialog provides the same set of settings as when you add a local external tool, but selecting the remote server is also suggested. This can be one of your configured SSH configurations, the default remote interpreter, or a Vagrant box. By default, PhpStorm will ask you for the host, port, and relevant SSH credentials every time you run the tool on the server.
Click OK to add the tool and then apply the changes.
Run the added tool on a remote server
From the main menu, select Tools | Remote tools | Date and time.
In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Keymap, find the
Date and time
action, and assign a shortcut for it. Use the shortcut to run the tool.
After you specify the host, port, and credentials, PhpStorm will connect to the server via SSH and run the date
command, returning the output to the Run tool window in PhpStorm.