Docker-based Development Environments with DDEV

The days of XAMPP and MAMP are over. Modern PHP development requires reproducible environments that closely mirror the production server. Docker is ideal for this -- and DDEV makes it comfortable.

Why DDEV?¶

DDEV abstracts away the complexity of Docker and offers a specialized solution for PHP projects. The advantages:

• Quick setup -- A single ddev config and ddev start is all it takes
• Pre-configured -- PHP, MariaDB/MySQL, Nginx, Mailpit, phpMyAdmin
• Multiple projects -- Each project gets its own isolated environment
• SSL out of the box -- Automatic HTTPS certificates

Project Configuration¶

A typical .ddev/config.yaml looks like this:

name: mein-projekt
type: symfony
docroot: public
php_version: "8.2"
mariadb_version: "10.11"
webserver_type: nginx-fpm
timezone: Europe/Berlin
additional_hostnames:
  - mein-projekt.local

Useful DDEV Commands¶

These are the commands I use most frequently in my daily work:

# Projekt starten und stoppen
ddev start
ddev stop

# In den Container springen
ddev ssh

# Composer und Node.js
ddev exec composer install
ddev exec npm run build

# Datenbank-Import
ddev import-db --file=dump.sql.gz

# Logs anzeigen
ddev logs -f

Custom Commands¶

DDEV can be extended with custom commands. A file placed under .ddev/commands/web/ automatically becomes available as a command:

#!/bin/bash
## Description: Run PHPUnit tests
## Usage: phpunit
## Example: ddev phpunit

vendor/bin/phpunit "$@"

After that, you can simply run tests with ddev phpunit.

Team Collaboration¶

The greatest advantage of DDEV becomes apparent in a team setting: every developer has exactly the same environment. No more "it works on my machine" discussions. The .ddev/ configuration belongs in the Git repository, and new team members are up and running in just a few minutes.

DDEV has significantly simplified my development workflow. Anyone still struggling with local PHP installations should definitely consider making the switch.