Re: debugging php webapps

On 28/01/2025 12:47, bruce wrote:

Hi. Looking over different articles.. Figured I'd post here as well. What tools are used to debug webapps/php apps? Treat the user/reader as a 6 year old! What setups, what tools, what sites have you found that detail the "tricks" I'm looking at firing up some bootstrap/laravel webapps, and I'm going to want to get to the level of understanding "as fast as possible" regarding front-side/serverside interaction, and/or bootstrap integration to laravel. thanks much! For Laravel apps, Debugbar (https://github.com/barryvdh/laravel-debugbar ) is a massive boon, and is especially helpful when you're using a lot of related models with Eloquent as it can help you identify where to optimise in order to avoid too many SQL queries where fewer would do. However, it doesn't work on API routes, just the web ones.

For all other PHP debugging, then XDebug has always been my go-to. It's easy to set up, integrates nicely with PHPStorm and Visual Studio Code, and has the added benefit of being able to pretty print errors (although that's more useful outside of a framework, as Laravel has its own built-in pretty print for errors). Ashley Sheridan Web developer and accessibility advocate https://ashleysheridan.co.uk