PHP Debugging with Breakpoints - case studies, examples..?

Question

I'd really like to get deeper into my php scripts and use things like breakpoints, as I'm doing with JS with firebug.

I've recently had no end of "fun and games" with magento and ZF, and I'm certain that some more sophisticated debugging techniques would have saved a lot of time.... ;)

However, there doesn't appear to be much in the way of detailed resources online about this - so I'd like to know more about what techniques people use, and what objectively is the best way to debug with breakpoints a php project.

Thing's I'd like to be able to see..

• Properties of objects
• Class hierarchies.. where objects are coming from, file names etc.. (useful in ZF/Magento)
• Variables, types, content..
• headers, post data, get data, session data, cookies..
• Network / filesystem status..

I know a lot of this can be done with judicious echoing and print_r/vardump etc, but its a bit raw.. and I'd like to be able to use a "continue"/"step-over" etc command on code after hitting a breakpoint, like with firebug.

Tips?

e: I'm going to try out xdebug, and the windows client - but I can't believe there aren't any good in-depth resources about how this works, considering it so fundamental :)

from php.ini:

zend_extension_ts = c:\wamp\bin\php\php5.2.11\ext\php_xdebug-2.1.0-5.2-vc6.dll;
xdebug.remote_enable=On;
xdebug.remote_host="localhost";
xdebug.remote_port=9000;
xdebug.remote_handler="dbgp";

Answer 1

xdebug + remote debugging + one of the supported clients

Answer 2

Use XDebug, it does most of what you require (not network/filesystem), and with it you can debug from eclipse, zend studio, pdt, or even notepad++

I keep debugging again and again when dealing with Magento, and it is super useful in this case, since Magento's function call stack is very deep.

Answer 3

Hi,

PHP is interpreted and server side scripting language. So, there are only few editors that supports the break point in PHP. And if you are doing the server side scripting then there is no way to debug your script using break points.

However if you are planning to have basic scripting & debugging then you can go with http://www.firephp.org/. Also if you use Zend Studio editor then you will have many options on hand for debugging your script. Zend Studio supports the break point, run & debug options.

I prefer to log the execution of my script in file.

Thanks