Debugging PHP With XDebug

In this talk we will discuss how to debug more effectively and get a better insight into an application by using Xdebug, we will look into setting up Xdebug in Phpstorm and sublime. We will also look into enabling debugging on a browser and setting up Xdebug in Insomnia and Paw.

Transcript

1. Debugging PHP With Xdebug Ts’epo Melvin Thoabala
2. Ts’epo Melvin Thoabala • Software engineer at superbalist.com • Interests ◦ Clean code ◦ Design patterns ◦ Systems architecture and design ◦ Computer vision. • tmthhoabala@gmail.com • melvinthoabala on git* • #idonttweet
3. Overview • What is debugging ? • A pool of available tools(PHP) • Xdebug • Setting up Xdebug • Using Xdebug demo?
4. Debugging what ?
5. What is debugging ? • • ❌ •
6. PHP Debugging tools • Xdebug ◦ Can add breakpoints and pause executions ◦ Support for morden IDEs • Firephp ◦ AJAX, JSON & XML • Kint • Whoops ◦ XMP & SOAP support ◦ JSON & AJAX support ◦ Code view for all frames in a stack trace with highlights • Krumo ◦ Prints out stack of variables using CSS and DHTML • PHP DebugBar ◦ Handles AJAX request
7. • An extension for PHP for … ◦ Stack traces ◦ Execution traces ◦ Memory allocation ◦ Code profiling ◦ Code coverage ◦ Interactive debugging ◦ Contains single_step_debugger to use with IDEs. ◦ Provides code_covarage functionality to use with PHPUnit. ◦ Recording every function call and variable assignment.
8. Why Xdebug
9. Why Xdebug Debugging without Xdebug • echo $foo; • var_dump($bar); • print_r($data); • error_log(__FILE__. ‘line’);
10. Why Xdebug 1. Add outputs 2. (re)load page 3. Look for output 4. Change some code 5. Add more output 6. Repeat 7. Cleanup outputs without missing any 8. Load page
11. Why use Xdebug
12. Why use Xdebug Debugging with Xdebug 1. Turn on debugging 2. Add breakpoint(s) 3. Load page 4. Step into code 5.
13. Why use Xdebug • Live values • Follow actual code path • Full stack trace • Supported by most “modern” IDEs • Does not require code changes to interrogate values
14. Why use Xdebug Live values
15. Setting up • PECL installation: ◦ pecl install xdebug ◦ zend_extension="/usr/local/php/modules/xdebug.so • Install from source ◦ git clone git://github.com/xdebug/xdebug.git • Homebrew: ◦ brew install xdebug https://xdebug.org/docs/install
16. Setting up
17. Setting up • PHP_IDE_CONFIG - defines the server configuration associated with the application. • XDEBUG_CONFIG - allows to define some Xdebug configurations. ◦ "remote host" is the private ip of your host machine (the one your IDE is running). ◦ "remote_port" is the port that the IDE will be listening for incoming Xdebug connections.
18. Summary • More efficient way to debug • Visibility into code • Watch Values change line by line • Better understanding of code path.