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WordCamp SF 2011: Debugging in WordPress

Aug. 13, 2011
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WordCamp SF 2011: Debugging in WordPress

  1. Debugging in WordPress WordCamp San Francisco 2011 August 13, 2011
  2. Andrew Nacin Core Developer of WordPress Tech Ninja at Audrey Capital nacin@wordpress.org @nacin on Twitter
  3. var_dump( $data ); die( ); // fin.
  4. “I love suppressing error messages!” — no one, ever.
  5. So let's start with WP_DEBUG define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
  6. What WP_DEBUG does: — Sets the error reporting level to include PHP notices — Bypasses some error suppression — Triggers notices for deprecated usage (more on that later)
  7. You can change its output: // A default of true forces on display_errors. define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true ); // Setting it to false will let PHP (php.ini) decide. define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false ); // So, if your php.ini has display_errors on, you'll also need to turn it off: ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );
  8. Likely being simplified in 3.3: // A default of true forces on display_errors. define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true ); // False forces off display_errors. define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false ); // Null will let PHP (php.ini) decide. define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', null );
  9. You can specify an error log: // wp-content/debug.log define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); // New in 3.3! (Likely.) define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', '/tmp/php-errors' ); // Follow ticket #18391, created last night.
  10. Debug admin CSS & JS with SCRIPT_DEBUG define( 'SCRIPT_DEBUG', true );
  11. SCRIPT_DEBUG prevents minification and concatenation of core scripts and styles. load-scripts.php?c=1&load=global,wp-admin,ms… versus global.dev.css, wp-admin.dev.css, ms.dev.css
  12. SCRIPT_DEBUG is good for: — Finding bugs in your admin screens — Studying the admin theme — Contributing to core
  13. Debug queries with SAVEQUERIES define( 'SAVEQUERIES', true );
  14. SAVEQUERIES stores query data in $wpdb->queries. (OMG BBQ: This is NOT for production.)
  15. Query: SELECT * FROM wp_users WHERE user_login = 'nacin' Backtrace: WP->init, wp_get_current_user, get_currentuserinfo, wp_validate_auth_cookie, get_user_by Execution time: 0.4ms
  16. On using these in production: WP_DEBUG — Don't display errors — Don't log to wp-content/error.log SCRIPT_DEBUG — Bad idea. SAVEQUERIES — Barry will hunt you down.
  17. Plugins
  18. Your new best friend: The Debug Bar It’s like Firebug for your WordPress.
  19. Debug Bar Console A Firebug-like console for PHP and MySQL (really)
  20. What's stopping you from building your own Debug Bar extension? Nothing.
  21. Log Deprecated Notices — Logs the usage of deprecated files, functions, and function arguments. — Pinpoints where the deprecated functionality is being used. — NEVER use in production.
  22. Theme Check — Test your theme for the latest WordPress standards and practices. — Required for the theme directory.
  23. Common functions when debugging — error_log and var_export / print_r — var_dump and sometimes die — debug_backtrace
  24. Tracking it down
  25. Step 1 Disable plugins Switch to default theme
  26. What might be left behind? Cron, Rewrites, Roles/Capabilities
  27. Drop-ins — advanced-cache.php — db.php — object-cache.php — mu-plugins
  28. What's going on? Query vars set properly? Main query SQL look right? Rewrite rule matched?
  29. Funny redirect? Confirm it's canonical. remove_action( 'template_redirect', 'redirect_canonical' );
  30. Testing multisite? I leave this in my config: // define( 'MULTISITE', true );
  31. Dig into the codebase. Your friends are phpxref, grep. Learn the stack. Learn what things call what.
  32. Some common traps
  33. Step 1 Is your code even running? (Spell the hook right?) die( 'wtf' ); or error_log( )
  34. White screen on the frontend, no errors? Appearance > Themes
  35. User interface doesn't work? Check the browser's JS console for an error, usually a conflict.
  36. Internal server errors? Infinite redirects. Check: — home and siteurl — then .htaccess — then canonical
  37. Widgets got moved around? Do the sidebars have IDs? Otherwise, it's the order in which register_sidebar() is called.
  38. Lots of pages? Slow site? My next Q: What's your permalink structure? No longer an issue in 3.3!
  39. Weird Bug #1 Somewhere deep in style.css: “Template: home.php” Miscalculated as a multisite bug: activated on single site before style.css had the headers.
  40. Weird Bug #2 The admin looked weird
  41. Weird Bug #2 The admin looked weird Trigger: Upgrade from 2.5 to 3.1
  42. Weird Bug #2 The admin looked weird Trigger: Upgrade from 2.5 to 3.1 Problem: No MySQL ALTER permissions
  43. Weird Bug #3 Some bbPress rewrites failed after activation
  44. Weird Bug #3 Some bbPress rewrites failed after activation Problem: Custom post type rewrites aren't registered on activation
  45. // Say you have: add_action( 'generate_rewrite_rules', function( $wp_rewrite ) { … } ); // And: register_activation_hook( __FILE__, function() { flush_rewrite_rules( ); } ); // But! This won't work for CPTs. Try this: add_action( 'init', 'my_register_post_types' ); register_activation_hook( __FILE__, function( ) { my_register_post_types( ); flush_rewrite_rules( ); } );
  46. Local Development
  47. /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 andrewnacin.com Configure virtual hosts Install local WordPress
  48. Replace links with an output buffer for development or staging environments
  49. // Run this on development or staging. // A development wp-config.php or local-config.php is fine. ob_start( 'nacin_dev_urls' ); function nacin_dev_urls( $buffer ) { $live = 'http://andrewnacin.com'; $dev = 'http://dev.andrewnacin.com'; return str_replace( $live, $dev, $buffer ); }
  50. URLs are more portable when they're absolute. Really.* The serialized stuff is lame though.
  51. Start of a conversation Xdebug (backtraces, profiling) KCacheGrind (visualization) Using an IDE Unit testing
  52. And finally, remember: Friends don't let friends develop without WP_DEBUG.
  53. Thanks! Questions? @nacin
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