Setting up a debugging environment for Drupal

Debugging Drupal
Setting up a local development environment

Tools of the Trade
Web server solution stack
Windows: XAMPP
Mac: MAMP
Integrated development environment (IDE)
Aptana
Web browser
Firefox + add-ons

Step 1: Set up your server
MAMP 1.8.3
XAMPP 1.7.1 (older version with PHP 5.2) from Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/files/

Step 1: Edit PHP settings
Find php.ini
MAMP: /Applications/MAMP/conf/PHP5/php.ini
XAMPP: c:xamppPHPphp.ini
error_reporting = E_ALL
display_errors = On
display_startup_errors = on
log_errors = on
error_log = “/path/to/php_error.log”

Step 1: Edit PHP settings
Find [xdebug] section towards the end of the file
Uncomment the line zend_extension=… by removing the semicolon
Add the following parameters after that line:
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_handler="dbgp"
xdebug.collect_params=3
xdebug.show_local_vars=On
xdebug.dump_globals=On
xdebug.show_exception_trace=On
xdebug.remote_mode=req
xdebug.idekey=default
Find [Zend] section
Comment the line zend_extension=… by prepending a semicolon

Step 1: Verify changes
Restart *AMP
Get to the php info page (via Devel module or *AMP website)

Step 2: Set up Aptana
Download and install Aptana Studio from http://www.aptana.org/studio/download (standalone, full installer)
Install PDT SDK 2.1.2
Set up your workspace
File > New Project…
PHP > PHP Project

Aptana Studio > Preferences > PHP > Debug > Default Settings group panel
Set debugger to Xdebug
Click Configure, ensure Xdebug is on port 9000
Click “PHP Executables…”, then “Add…”
Add a new PHP executable which points to *AMP’s php executable (/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin/php, c:xamppin...) and the php.ini file (/Applications/MAMP/conf/php5/php.ini)
Click OK
Return to the group panel and verify that the PHP executable is set
Restart the server

Associate Drupal file extensions as PHP files
Preferences > General > Content Types
Within Content Types > Text select PHP Content Type and add *.module and *.install
Preferences > General > Editors > File Associations
Add *.module and *.install extension
Under Associated editors selected PHP editor and click Default

Add the PHP debug perspective

Step 3: Set up Firefox
Install Xdebug Helper add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3960
Toggle Xdebug session
Toggle Xdebug profiler

Step 3: Set up Firefox
Default configuration for add-on should be fine

Presto!
Ensure Firefox is not working in offline mode
Toggle on the Xdebug session
Reload the page

Printing out variables
From PHP:
var_dump( $var1[, $var2, $var3, …] );
var_export( $var[, $returnAsString] );
print_r( $var[, $returnAsString] );
From the Devel module:
dprint_r()
Better formatting of code than print_r()
dsm()
Print into the messages box
“Less likely to wreck your beautiful page layout”

Additional Resources
About Xdebug Helper Firefox add-on: http://code.google.com/p/syslogr-utils/wiki/XdebugHelper
Settings up a debugging environment in Aptana: http://docs.aptana.com/docs/index.php/Developing_with_the_Aptana_PHP_Plugin
Xdebug website:http://xdebug.org/

Setting up a debugging environment for Drupal

by jonlee554 on Dec 15, 2009

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Setting up a debugging environment for Drupal — Presentation Transcript