Kevin Schroeder has a method in one of his latest posts for hooking your linux-based system into Zend's phpcloud platform, complete with an automatic upload (so you're not constantly sftp-ing).

Connecting with the Zend DevCloud in Linux is actually quite easy if you know how to use SFTP. [...] But, as I said in a previous post, I hate having to do command line stuff for each and every file or commit. I like things to work seamlessly. So what I did was write a PHP script that connects to the DevCloud (or any SSH-based endpoint for that matter) and then monitors all of the files and directories for changes, such as a creation, modification or deletion event.

His script (available on github) uses the PECL inotify package to work, but once its set up, you can have the PHP process running the script in the background, pointed at your web root, and have it upload automatically.

Kevin Schroeder has a new post for the Netbeans users out there wanting to work with the Zend Developer Cloud directly without having to mess around with other external software.

Getting NetBeans connected to the Zend Developer Cloud is actually pretty simple… if you have NetBeans 7.1 which is currently in RC. NetBeans 7.0 has a bug that won't allow you to connect to Git over HTTPS. NetBeans 7.1 fixes that issue. You will also need to make sure that you have the Git module installed.

His post includes the step by step process (including some screenshots to getting the automated deployment set up and working in this popular IDE. The key is setting up the SFTP connection to point to the right location on the cloud server (the path isn't very intuitive, he recommends finding it with another SFTP program for the initial setup).

With an excerpt from the Packt Publishing book "PHPEclipse: A User Guide" (Shu-Wai Chow), DevArticles has posted this first of a two part series looking at the use of phpEclipse to help with the deployment of your site.

Eclipse simplifies the process of deploying your site to a web server. You can even use Ant, traditionally thought of as a Java tool, to help you in the deployment.

Once again, Eclipse simplifies our work by including several tools that aid us in this process.

The key to deployment in Eclipse is the export function. Eclipse gives us many options in exporting our site. First, we will look at FTP, an old and common method of moving files.

They cover how to set up an FTP site inside the editor, making it a simple process to upload any chnages you've made instantly. They also discuss other methods like SFTP, WebDAV, and Ant support the client can adapt itself to. There are screenshots along the way to help you through each step, including some from other operating systems where the setup might be a bit different.