Develop and run PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS locally on your iPad or iPhone (or an Apple Silicon Mac), without requiring an internet connection.
Run Apps as complex as WordPress or phpMyAdmin right on your device.
Freely choose your workspace location on your device, either inside DraftCode, or in the folder of a Git Client like WorkingCopy, on iCloud or other services that offer selectable folder locations.
Access your PHP Web App from other Apps on your iPad while in Split Screen mode, for example Mobile Safari or Brave.
DraftCode includes the standard PHP stack including PHP extensions typically available on a server: MySQL, SQLite, PDO, Curl, OpenSSL, FTP, XML, JSON, SOAP, GD and more.
DraftCode can run different versions of PHP and you can switch between them:
- Includes PHP 7.3
- Includes PHP 8.0
- (via in-App Purchase): PHP 8.1
- (via in-App Purchase): PHP 8.2
DraftCode Features:
- Execute PHP/JS/HTML/CSS without requiring an internet connection
- Run Apps as complex as WordPress on your device for offline development
- Support for selecting a custom workspace folder in supported other Apps (like Git clients) or iCloud
- Includes a Session Inspector showing state of current session variables
- Shows PHP errors
- PHP and JavaScript syntax colouring
- Internal keyboard support with coding accessory
- External keyboard support with additional keyboard shortcuts
- Multitasking and split-screen support on iPad
- Includes PHP packages: WordPress, phpMyAdmin, Composer and more
- File workspace including support to zip, unzip, copy, move or duplicate files or folders
- Code import/export from iCloud Drive, other Apps or iTunes file sharing
- Kiosk mode that runs you PHP code fullscreen
- Script mode to run PHP scripts without a web context or timeout
INCLUDED PHP PACKAGES
WORDPRESS 6.8
With just one tap you can run WordPress offline (using the included WordPress SQLite plugin) and develop themes and plugins for the popular platform.
PHPMYADMIN
Connect to EXTERNAL MySQL databases (MySQL is NOT included).
PHPLITEADMIN
Work with local SQLite databases.
COMPOSER
Use Composer v.2.1.12 to efficiently manage your dependencies. The package also includes an example project.
For more information and answers to frequently asked questions please visit DraftCode's website. (Please follow the "Developer Website" link below.)
Please note:
- Included packages might not yet support all PHP versions available (check their website)
- DraftCode's runtime currently does not support re-write rules
- A MySQL database is NOT included. (We recommend using SQLite when working completely offline.)
- A phpinfo() output of the current available runtime configurations is available on the DraftCode website, please follow the "Developer Website" link below.
- In-App purchase pricing can be reviewed on this App Store page under "Information" by tapping the triangle next to 'In-App Purchases"
I agree with the other folks, this is definitely a powerful web server for the iPad. awesome! I was searching for an app that was similar to MAMP, and this is filling my needs. I know this is geared toward PHP, but it has the potential to be some much more (e.g. full stack syntax highlighting, file management vs. defaulted php extensions). My recommendation to the developer is to expand on this foundation. Some enhanced UX, power user/work flow enhancements. more focus on managing projects. For instance, I created a new html, css, js, php project (took a little while to set everything up. A ’template’ project configuration would be so slick) and would love to render the project (like switching to the browser and hitting refresh) instead of rendering the file that you’re viewing. I have to traverse back to the index file and run that file to see my changes. thanks for the work you’ve put into this; can’t wait to see where it goes.
Great so far...only 1 day in
MVT Rochester NY
I am impressed with the ability to do PHP on the iPad. I got phpliteadmin by downloading and unzipped it using short PHP commands. Also brought over files from my online site the same way. Awesome! I am able to "share HTML/CSS files" built in PHP to Koder (another great app) and run on a local web server that connects to other users on my network. This might be a good way for me to have a completely offline server for my app to host static pages on my local network right from the iPad. Not sure yet how many connections it will handle. I was golfing in the Adirondacks with 30 guys for 3 day fall event and used a big laptop and printer for our tournament results -- no data coverage, old school. I am assuming Apple won't allow a dynamic language like PHP to be a web server but if they ever do this would be the app to host local dynamic pages.
Great start, but has some severe problems
multi gravbreak
While the app does exactly what it says, there's some things you should know before dropping the 10 bucks:- The Javascript messages viewer is always empty no matter how many times you try to print through the console.- You can't Cmd+F or Cmd+G to quickly find strings or lines. This is a huge blow to working on larger documents.- You can't quickly navigate lines because tapping any line only brings you to the front, and Home/End don't work.- Scroll position jumps to either the top or bottom of the document every time you switch between files.- You can't work from an existing workspace folder; you MUST copy a folder into the program's folder in order to work on it, or manually import individual files. That means if you're working on a number of files you have on Dropbox, every edit you make must be manually saved, file by file, back into the original folder.- And this is made doubly difficult by the fact that copying between the two locations is a nightmare on iOS. I can't even paste my project into the DraftCode folder anymore because I just get an error saying "Couldn't communicate with a helper application". This is actually a Dropbox problem, but it's one that you have to be aware of since you can't work straight from the Dropbox folder.
Developer Response
Thanks for the detailed feedback. v1.12 should address some of those issues you have raised. If you can spare some time for testing and additional feedback, please get in touch with support.
Great start but iOS falls short?
ThisOtherPerson
Ok, l know this is a huge undertaking and iOS is severely limited so far as a development tool. What issue this app seems to suffer from is as a developer, I can’t really work on a plugin in WordPress while WP is running.Pretty ineffective to have to start and stop WP each time to edit a file and then see the result rendered.Update: I contacted the developer and he has been VERY responsive to my concerns. He has provided some ideas for workflow that seem acceptable. Running web apps on iOS is no small feat. My hope is that this app will be well supported and the product will continue to be updated.
- PHP 8.0 Runtime is now included for free
- Updated included Wordpress and its SQLite plugin
- General bugfixes and improvements
Version 1.14.2
The developer, Solesignal Limited, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
Seller
Solesignal Limited
Size
157.6 MB
Category
Developer Tools
Compatibility
Requires iOS 15.6 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 15.6 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 15.6 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 15.6 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
