PHP completion with Company does not work on local variables

Question

I do have a strange issue when working on PHP files.

I have company-mode installed and it works for function completion but not for local variables.

For others languages such as Ruby or Lisp, everything is fine. But not for PHP.

In the following gif, as you can see, I can complete functions that begins by "str" but not the local variable that begins by "$tot"

And here is my very simplified config used for this example:

;; Requires and internal modes settings
(require 'package)

(ido-mode 1)
(show-paren-mode 1)
(transient-mark-mode 1)

;; Internal vars

(setq debug-on-error t
      case-fold-search t
      kill-whole-line t)

(fset 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)

;; Use package

(setq package-enable-at-startup nil
      package-archives '(("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/")
                         ("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")
                         ("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/")))

(package-initialize)

(when (not package-archive-contents) (package-refresh-contents))
(unless (package-installed-p 'use-package) (package-install 'use-package))
(eval-when-compile (require 'use-package))

;; Package :: completion

(use-package company :ensure t :init (global-company-mode 1))

;; Packages :: web

(use-package php-mode :ensure t)
(use-package php-extras :ensure t)
(use-package rainbow-mode :ensure t)
(use-package web-mode :ensure t)

Do you guys have any idea of what's going on ?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

• C-h v major-mode gives php-mode
• C-h v company-backend gives nil

• C-h v company-backends gives:

  Its value is (php-extras-company company-bbdb company-nxml company-css company-eclim company-semantic company-clang company-xcode company-cmake company-capf company-files (company-dabbrev-code company-gtags company-etags company-keywords) company-oddmuse company-dabbrev)

  Original value was (company-bbdb company-nxml company-css company-eclim company-semantic company-clang company-xcode company-cmake company-capf company-files (company-dabbrev-code company-gtags company-etags company-keywords) company-oddmuse company-dabbrev)

Answer 1

You only need php-extras-company and company-dabbrev, place them in the same group and at the BEGINNING of the company-backends,

(add-hook 'php-mode-hook
            (lambda ()
              (set (make-local-variable 'company-backends)
                   '((php-extras-company company-dabbrev) company-capf company-files))))

See https://github.com/company-mode/company-mode/issues/182 @dgutov comments.