OpenCart plugin for PhpStorm

PhpStorm plugin for OpenCart 1.5 / 2.x / 3.x / 4.x and ocStore. It teaches the IDE the parts of OpenCart that static analysis cannot see: string routes, the Registry magic, loaded models, language keys, Twig variables, OCMOD modifications and the event system.

Think of it as Laravel Idea, but for OpenCart.

Installation

1. Download opencart-phpstorm-plugin-<version>.zip from the Releases page.
2. In PhpStorm: Settings → Plugins → ⚙ → Install Plugin from Disk… and pick the archive.
3. Restart the IDE.

Requires PhpStorm 2026.2 or newer. The plugin activates itself in any project where an OpenCart installation is found (detected by system/engine/loader.php and catalog/), including stores that live in a subdirectory such as public_html/ and stores whose admin directory has been renamed.

Features

Type inference

• $this->model_catalog_product->getProduct() resolves to the loaded model, honouring the admin/catalog side and the 4.x namespace layout. The class is taken from the actual file rather than by name: in 2.x/3.x the admin and catalog models declare the very same class name.
• $this->db, $this->config, $this->cart, $this->session, $this->user, … — the registry map is read from system/framework.php, index.php and the startup controllers of the store at hand, so custom libraries loaded via $this->load->library() are typed as well.

Navigation and completion

• load->controller(), load->model(), load->view(), load->language(), load->library(), url->link(), template->render(), new Action(). In 4.x a route carrying a method (catalog/product.list) jumps straight to that method; in 2.x/3.x the trailing segment is recognised as a method too.
• language->get('text_success') → the $_['text_success'] line in the language file; completion shows the translated value next to every key.
• config->get('config_...') — completion for setting keys.
• Go to Symbol (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N) finds controllers and models by their route.
• Gutter icons on a controller class lead to the template and the language files of the same route.

Twig

• Completion for template variables based on $data[...] of the matching controller.
• Ctrl+click on {{ heading_title }} jumps to where the variable is assigned, or to the language key.

OCMOD / vQmod

• Ctrl+click from <file path="..."> to the target file, wildcard paths included.
• Inspection: the target is missing, or the <search> fragment is not present in the target file — meaning the modification will silently not apply. A common reason for "the module stopped working after the upgrade".

Events

• Ctrl+click on an event name ('catalog/model/checkout/order/addHistory/after') opens the method the event wraps; on a handler route ('extension/total/voucher/send') it opens the handler itself.
• Gutter icons: on a method — who subscribes to it; on a handler — where the subscription is registered.
• Completion for event names driven by the prefix you typed (catalog/model/ offers real model routes plus before/after).
• Subscriptions are indexed from addEvent(...) calls in both flavours: positional (1.5–3.x) and array (4.x). Matching mirrors the engine: the area segment is dropped, comparison is prefix based and supports * and ?.

OpenCart tool window

• A tree of store → admin/catalog → controllers / models / templates / language files with counts, plus an "Events" branch listing trigger → action pairs.
• Double click opens the file, and for handlers the exact method. Type to search the tree. The tree is built in the background, so a large store does not freeze the UI.

Inspections with quick fixes

• Unknown route → create the controller, model, template or language file (language files are created for every installed language at once).
• $this->model_x_y used without load->model('x/y') → insert the missing load call.
• Unknown language key → add the key to every language.

Also

• SQL highlighting inside $this->db->query(...): the concatenation is glued into one statement, with DB_PREFIX taken from config.php and the remaining expressions shown as placeholders. Needs the bundled Database Tools and SQL plugin — with it disabled there is no SQL language to inject and the queries stay plain strings.
• Generator: Tools → New OpenCart Module… creates an admin controller with settings saving, a template, language files for every language and the catalog part — laid out for the store version (extension/<code>/ for 4.x, admin/controller/extension/module/ for 2.3/3.x, module/ for 1.5/2.0).

Development

./gradlew build          # compile and test
./gradlew test           # 43 integration tests against synthetic OC3 and OC4 stores
./gradlew buildPlugin    # build/distributions/opencart-phpstorm-plugin-<version>.zip
./gradlew runIde         # PhpStorm sandbox with the plugin installed

By default Gradle downloads a PhpStorm distribution from the JetBrains repository (~1.5 GB). To build against an IDE you already have, create local.properties (not under version control):

phpstormLocalPath=/home/user/.local/share/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/phpstorm-2

Installing the built archive into a local IDE by hand:

rm -rf ~/.local/share/JetBrains/PhpStorm2026.2/opencart-phpstorm-plugin
unzip -o -q build/distributions/opencart-phpstorm-plugin-1.1.zip -d ~/.local/share/JetBrains/PhpStorm2026.2/

Releases are cut by tag: git tag v0.1.0 && git push origin v0.1.0. The workflow builds the archive and publishes it under Releases with the notes taken from the top section of CHANGELOG.md.

Project layout

Package	Responsibility
core	store detection, versions, admin/catalog areas, route ↔ file mapping, registry, settings
type	PhpTypeProvider for models and registry objects
reference, completion	references and completion inside PHP strings
lang	language files and keys
twig	controller ↔ template link
ocmod	OCMOD/vQmod references and applicability checks
event	event name parsing, subscription index, trigger ↔ action navigation
toolwindow	routes and events panel
inspection, quickfix	inspections and quick fixes
generator	module and file skeleton generation
navigation, marker, sql	Go to Symbol, gutter icons, SQL injection

Synthetic stores used by the tests live in src/test/testData/oc3 and src/test/testData/oc4.

Known limitations

• In 2.x/3.x admin/model/catalog/product.php and catalog/model/catalog/product.php declare classes with identical names, so "Go to Declaration" sometimes offers both. Completion is unaffected.
• Event subscriptions are only visible where they are registered in code (addEvent). Events inserted straight into the event table cannot be seen statically.

Author

Built by nikifalex. Questions, bug reports and feature requests are welcome in GitHub issues or in Telegram: @t523651.

License

MIT