How to debug Magento 2 code with Xdebug and PhpStorm (Part 1)

Debug Magento 2 with Xdebug and PhpStorm
Debug Magento 2 with Xdebug and PhpStorm

Debug Magento 2: Introduction

Debugging is critical in the development process of any system. Some developers like to log things out, some like to print it right on the screen, but most prefer run-time debugging. Predictably, correctly debugging your application will save you tons of time and effort. To debug Magento 2 code, you can use either XDebug or Zend Debug. In this article, we will try to install and configure Xdebug, since it is more popular and easier to use. Also, note that the IDE we use in this article is PhpStorm.

Ready? Let’s start with the most important thing: Install XDebug.

Install XDebug

From now on we assume you have your web server running Ubuntu locally on /var/www/html/. First, you have to put a file named info.php there, with the content:

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Then go to 127.0.0.1/info.php, and the following screen should display:

A sample Phpinfo page
A sample Phpinfo page

Now to install Xdebug, open the terminal and type in the following command:

sudo apt-get install php5-xdebug

Here you have your Xdebug installed. However, we need to add some config script to set up Xdebug locally. Check your info.php again, look for this line where you can get the php.ini file location.

Find your php.ini path
Find your php.ini path

Go there and paste the following code into the end of the file

zend_extension=”/usr/lib/php5/20131226/xdebug.so”

xdebug.remote_enable=1

xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp

xdebug.remote_mode=req

xdebug.remote_host=localhost

xdebug.remote_port=9000

xdebug.max_nesting_level=300

xdebug.ide_key=’PHPSTORM’

xdebug.remote_connect_back=1

One thing worth mentioning is the zend_extension variable. The number might change depending on your machine. If you are running on php 7 then it would be /usr/lib/php7/20131226/xdebug.so

You will need to restart apache  to apply the changes:

Sudo service apache2 restart

Now take a look again at phpinfo, if you can see this part then it is configured correctly

Your Xdebug configuration
Your Xdebug configuration

Setup XDebug with PhpStorm

In order to use Xdebug to debug Magento 2, you have to setup it with your IDE (in our case it is PhpStorm). In PhpStorm windows, you need to go to File -> Settings -> Languages & Frameworks -> PHP and set the CLI interpreter

Set correct CLI Interpreter for Php
Set the correct CLI Interpreter for Php

Then go to Servers and set up a debug server. Additionally, you can set up several ones if you want.

Setup Test Server
Setup Test Server

Save the config, then go to Run -> Debug Configuration and add a PHP Web Application debug config.

Setup Magento Application that you want to debug
Setup Magento Application that you want to debug

Then look at the upper right corner, you will see the debug listener is now clickable. It means your PhpStorm is ready to listen to debug signals

PhpStorm debug tab
PhpStorm debug tab

Now there are two ways that you can get started with debugging, the first way is clicking on the green bug, then a new browser page will load up and you can start your debugging from that point

Alternatively, you can install Xdebug helper extensions for browsers, Chrome and Firefox, so that it can send debugging signal out to PhpStorm to catch it.

With Chrome: Xdebug helper

With Firefox: The easiest Xdebug

Have you finished all these setups with ease? If you face any problems while setting up and configuring or are keen on our Magento development services, contact us now! We guarantee that at Magenest we provide top-notch services for an unbeatable price.

However, remember that’s just our first part. In the second part, we will discuss how to debug Magento 2 code effectively with Xdebug and PhpStorm. See you soon!

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