Setting up PHP debugging in an IDE with a local development environment has gotten so easy it can be done in a few automated steps. In this post I will demonstrate how to get step debugging functioning with PhpStorm and Zend Debugger when the server is set up on a local environment.
To begin with, I had the following:
- Local installation of Zend Server 8.5.+ (basic LAMP stack, but with Zend Debugger included in the Zend Server installation). Alternatively I could have had a vanilla LAMP environment with Xdebug.
- Ensure that Z-Ray is active in the Zend Server settings.
- A local project set up on PhpStorm, without the server set up in the PhpStorm project configuration. (in this example I have a Zend Expressive Skeleton ready)
- The local project set up as an Apache virtualhost.
With the project open in PhpStorm I click the icon to inform the IDE to start listening for debugging sessions. (Usually in the upper right corner, looks like a telephone receiver with a red indicator that it is not listening, and turns green when you click it)
Then a browser with the application rendered I click the debug icon in the Z-Ray toolbar at the foot of the window, and select the desired debugging action.
This will cause PhpStorm to prompt after it receives the debug connection from Zend Debugger. In most cases we can simply click Accept and let things happen normally.
That’s about it, we are debugging!
Behind the scenes, PhpStorm created a site and associated it with the project.
Of course we could have created the server ahead of time and not be prompted to Accept the incoming connection, but what is the fun in that?
Closing
This was a very simplistic local development environment setup. We didn’t have a firewall to contend with, and the server was set up locally rather than inside a virtual machine. I have other posts, linked below, to help with some of these alternative setups.
Happy Debugging!
Other posts on Debugging you may find helpful: