Debugging PHP with Netbeans

[Markus Wolff]

Hello Netbeaners,

I'm new to this list and to using Netbeans as a PHP IDE - in fact, I'm
still in the process of evaluating it as a potential replacement for
PDT / Zend Studio. Let's see how it turns out.

First impression: Really cool. Everything seems to work out-of-the-box.
There's one problem though, regarding debugging.

When I initially setup a project, I have to declare an index page. For
my test project, this is:

trunk/document_root/index.php

I'm using Zend Framework, so this script is the single point of entry
for all calls to any action within the project.

I also set up a virtual host in Apache for my project, which is:

http://marjory.local/

To try debugging the project, I press CTRL-F5, select server-side PHP
(without Javascript) and press OK. Next, the browser is opened with the
following URL:

http://marjory.local/trunk/document_root/index.php?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=netbeans-xdebug

Ookay, it's quite clear what's happening: The location of the index page
relative to the Netbeans project root is appended to the host address.
That's a nice idea but as the document root is in the document_root
folder, this address can never be found.

How can I fix this? How can I tell Netbeans where the real document root
is, and enter a real path to the index file (which Netbeans validates,
so I can't enter a path that does not exist).

Also, the actual file name "index.php" may not be mentioned in the URL,
or the rewrite rule in the virtual host won't work.

Here's what the URL should look like when starting a debug session:

http://marjory.local/?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=netbeans-xdebug

Is this possible?

Regards,
Markus

[radek matous]

Hi,

Try change Web Root. See
http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/project-setup.html#sources

Radek

Markus Wolff wrote:

[Markus Wolff]

Hey Radek,

good call, it's better now, but still not perfect:

Netbeans now calls...
http://marjory.local/index.php?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=netbeans-xdebug

...but what I'm aiming for is...
http://marjory.local/index/?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=netbeans-xdebug

...or, even better:
http://marjory.local/?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=netbeans-xdebug

Nevermind though, I can still start debug sessions by typing the URL
manually, would just have been nice to do it via a shortcut from within
the IDE.

CU
Markus

radek matous schrieb:

[radek matous]

Markus Wolff wrote:

[johnkramlich]

My temporary solution under NetBeans 6.7.1 is to specify a fake localhost as my webserver. When you start the debugger it will launch the web browser and try to connect to the server, which does not exist. While it is attempting to connect to this nonexistent server you can load the URL you want via FireFox with the xDebug addon installed ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3960 ). Ensure that you enable the addon and that it's icon in the status bar is green. This causes the next HTTP request from FireFox to connect with the NetBeans PHP debugger and you are able to step through you code as you like.

I use this method to debug my Zend Framework projects.