Debugging frameworks using xdebug

numerical25

I just setup xdebug with my eclipse IDE. I have a problem though. It appears that eclipse only debugs the selected document that is open. Which isn't good. Most php frameworks go through a single entry point, usually index.php. If I put a break point in a controller. How do I debug without having to select the document directly ?

johanafm

Don't they usually simply select those based on the url or query string?

sneakyimp

As I recall, eclipse and xdebug have a pretty complex relationship so there are a lot of settings. somewhere in there, one of them allows you to automatically break on the first line of PHP code. I think it's a checkbox somewhere. Sorry, I know this is not particulary helpful.

A different problem you may be having is that you might not have eclipse/xdebug configured properly. For the longest time I was having a problem where my php scripts would never stop on a breakpoint. I ultimately traced it back to the PHP.ini settings for xdebug or something like that. Have you succesfully managed to debug any scripts at all yet?

numerical25

Yea, I am able to debug. It stops on the breaks and everything. My problem is when you use frameworks, such as zend, cake, magento or anything like that. you cant go to any file and just debug it. It must first run through the framework before reaching that particular file. I would like to place breaks on several files and have it break when it finally reaches those documents.

sneakyimp

eclipse most definitely supports break points. have you tried setting any? if so, does Eclipse allow you to step line-by-line through the code or not? If not, you have a configuration problem somewhere.

If so, you need to click on the appropriate link to trigger the script you want to debug. It may not be that easy to figure out. Lots of frameworks also use some crazy mod_rewrite rules which make it tricky.

numerical25

I got it figured out. Just had to play around with it a little. I guess I must open the test browser before initiating the php scripting debugger. after that, i can surf the pages and it will hit breakpoints when i go to new pages that require that particular document that has the break in it.

sneakyimp

If I recall correctly, eclipse should let you specify a url to launch when debugging a script on a web server. This url will contain a session id or debug_id or something. Then, apache (or whatever your webserver is) and Eclipse open a socket so the webserver and Eclipse can stay in sync with your code. In Eclipse, you have to select your debug options (debug as script, as web page, etc.) and you can store them in profiles for easy reference later. This process could be much better documented in my opinion.