Setting up a XDebug debugging environment for PHP / WAMP / Eclipse PDT

In this article, we will step through all the steps required to enable debugging on your PHP environment.

The setup we will use is: WAMP 2 with PHP 5.3, Eclipse Helios with PDT.

Setting up the development environment

Obviously, the first step is to install WAMP, then to install Eclipse Helios (use the Eclipse for PHP release version). I will assume in this article you have a basic understand of Wamp and Eclipse PDT.

Download and configure XDebug

Start Wamp Server. In order to get the right version of XDebug, we will need to have a look at the php_info() screen. On a WAMP server, this screen can be accessed easily at: http://localhost/?phpinfo=1

XDebug provides a "find binary page" that can analyze your php_info(), and propose the best XDebug version for you. So just perform a huge "copy" in the clipboard of your php_info() page, and paste it into the XDebug find binary page as shown below:

This page is somewhat magical. Just click on the "Analyse my phpinfo() button", and XDebug will output the complete installation instructions:

Follow the install instructions:
- download the xdebug dll file
- put it in the target directory
- edit your php.ini file

You will now need to setup the XDebug parameters to connect to your debugger.
Add these lines to your php.ini file:

xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_host="localhost"
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.remote_handler="dbgp"

Now, restart your Wamp server.

Setup XDebug in Eclipse

We will now configure Eclipse to connect to the debugger. Open one of your PHP projects. In this tutorial, I will be debugging a Drupal project, but you can really debug on web site developped with PHP.

Put a breakpoint in your code (by double-clicking in the left margin in your code.

Now, go to the debug configuration screen.

Right click on "PHP Web Page", then "New"

Select "XDebug" has the debugger.
In "File", select the first file that will be triggered when you access the web page.
As an advice, you should not use the "Auto Generate" URL feature, as it will almost be wrong if you use Apache Aliases or URL Rewriting. So uncheck the "Auto Generate" checkbox, and point the URL to the web page you want to debug.

Start debugging!

Everything is correctly set-up? Click "Debug"! If you have correctly set up your environment, Eclipse should switch in debug mode and you should halt on your break-point.

Congratulations, your debugging environment is set-up, you can stop using var_dump(), and start being efficient :)