Almost all php scripts are used in web apps and therefore it is essential to debug scripts in the context of a web application rather than debugging a php file in isolation. This recipe describes how to set up the Zend debugger for debugging php scripts in a running web application.
The example used here uses WAMP. However the configuration will mostly be similar in any PHP/Apache/eclipse environment.

Steps

• Download the All-in-One Eclipse PDT + Zend Debugger Package from the eclipse site.
• Find and note the location of the ZendDebugger.dll (ZendDebugger.so for linux). It can usually be found in the eclipse/plugins/org.zend.debug.debugger.<version>/resources/php5.
• Edit the php.ini file (in your apache/bin), adding the following towards the end of the file:

zend_extension_ts=/your/path/to/ZendDebugger.dll
zend_debugger.allow_hosts=127.0.0.1
zend_debugger.expose_remotely=always

You may add more hosts by seperating the ip list with commas.

• Start your WAMP server and navigate to http://localhost/phpinfo.php on your browser and click on the link phpinfo(). In this page you should see an entry for the Zend debugger which looks something similar to this:
  
  If you do not see the above table then php is not able to find your dll file.
• Your eclipse download should have have a dummy.php file. If it doesn’t or you cant find it ( I know I couldn’t), create one containing the following code and place the file in your Document Root.

  <?php
  @ini_set('zend_monitor.enable', 0);
  if(@function_exists('output_cache_disable')) {
      @output_cache_disable();
  }
  if(isset($_GET['debugger_connect']) && $_GET['debugger_connect'] == 1) {
      if(function_exists('debugger_connect'))  {
          debugger_connect();
          exit();
      } else {
          echo "No connector is installed.";
      }
  }
  ?>
  

• In eclipse, create/import your php project with the php files you intend to debug. For our purposes here let us assume that our project has the following directory structure. We also assume here that: a) myphpproject is our document root, b) requests are sent from index.html to phpfile1.php and c) we want to debug phpfile1.php

myphpproject
|__index.html
|__lib
   |___phpfile1.php
   |___phpfile2.php

The next sections assume the above, if your directory structure is different then change the values accordingly.

• Right click on your project then select: Debug As->Debug Configurations.
• On the left pane of the Debug Configuration window, select PHP Web Page, right click and create a new configuration. In the resulting pane on the right hand side select the Server tab, then select the Server Debugger as Zend Debugger and click on the Test Debugger button. If the debugger is configured correctly you should get a success message.
• Now click on the Configure button. In the Server tab of the resulting window, fill in the values according to your configuration. In our case, since we are running WAMP on the localhost we enter http://localhost as URL. In the Path Mapping tab, click on Add and enter the path on server and path in workspace (http://localhost and /myphpproject respectively, in our case here) and click on OK:
  
• Now back at the Debug Configuration window, enter the values for the File you want to debug and the URL. In our case here we assume that we want to debug phpfile1.php and requests are sent from index.html (either through a form or otherwise) to this php file where we want to start debugging. Therefore this is what our values look like:
  
• Click on the Advanced tab and select where you want to start debugging. We select the Start Debug From option and enter http://localhost/lib/phpfile1.php. Also check the Open in browser option.
• Now click on the Apply button and then the Debug button. Your web application should start in a browser window in eclipse. Carry out whatever action you need to do on the web page to send the request to your php file. Eclipse will open in debug perspective and execution will suspend on the first line of your php file. From here debug as usual.

Troubleshooting

• Test Debugger Fails Check that you have the correct IP/host in Window->Preferences->PHP->Debug->Installed Debuggers->Zend Debugger->Configure
• Connection to Apache resets on consecutive debugs: After each debug session is complete, click on the terminate button (the red button seen in debug perspective) in Eclipse and then start a new session.

  Tags: Eclipse, PHP, Zend