I keep seeing people asking the question “How do I get code completion to work in Aptana and Eclipse PDT?”. A lot of the time I see the Helper fix but nothing else! With a bit of fiddling I’ve finally got a complete solution that works! Here how I did it:

Follow this guide to enable the .thtml or .ctp file extentions: Setting up Eclipse to work with Cake

Create a dummy file in your cake root directory with the following code:

<?php
   exit();
   //declare and define all of the helpers
   //to helper enable codecompletion
   if(1 == 0) {
        $ajax = new AjaxHelper();
        $cache = new CacheHelper();
        $form = new FormHelper();
        $html = new HtmlHelper();
        $javascript = new JavascriptHelper();
        $number = new NumberHelper();
        $session = new SessionHelper();
        $text = new TextHelper();
        $time = new TimeHelper();
    }
?>

Then to get the Model code completion from within controllers create an app_controller.php file in you app directory and add a dummy function with the following code:

<?php
    class AppController extends Controller {
        public function dummy () {
            //for each of your models add a definition and declaration
            //like the ones that follow
            $this->User = new User();
            $this->Post = new Post();
        }
    }
?>

So with a bit of luck this will help you on your way. Thanks for reading!