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Debugging Tools and Techniques in Codeigniter

Table of Contents

Now, let's go through each step in detail:

Prerequisites​

Make sure you have the following prerequisites installed on your system:

tip

To learn how to set up debugging in CodeIgniter with VS Code, follow our detailed blog- Click Here.

Install Visual Studio Code​

Download and install Visual Studio Code from the official website (https://code.visualstudio.com/). Follow the installation instructions for your operating system.

Install PHP Debug Extension​

Launch Visual Studio Code and go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X). Search for "PHP Debug" and install the "PHP Debug" extension by Felix Becker.

Configure Debugging in VS Code​

Open your CodeIgniter project in Visual Studio Code. In the Explorer view (Ctrl+Shift+E), click on the gear icon to open the Debug view (or press Ctrl+Shift+D). Click on the gear icon again and select "PHP" as the environment.

Create a Debug Configuration​

Click on the "create a launch.json file" link in the Debug view. Select "PHP" as the environment for debugging. This will generate a launch.json file in the .vscode directory of your project.

In the launch.json file, you can modify the pathMappings section to map your local project path to the server path. For example:

"pathMappings": {
  "/var/www/html/my-project": "${workspaceFolder}"
}

Start Debugging​

Place breakpoints in your CodeIgniter application where you want the debugger to stop. In the Debug view, click on the green play button to start debugging. This will launch your application in the browser.

Debugging CodeIgniter​

As you navigate through your CodeIgniter application, the debugger will stop at breakpoints you have set. You can inspect variables, step through the code, and analyze the application's behavior.

Common Debugging Techniques​

  • Inspect Variables: Use the Variables panel in the Debug view to view the values of variables at breakpoints.
  • Step Over: Use the Step Over button to execute the current line and move to the next line.
  • Step Into: Use the Step Into button to move into function calls and step through the code line by line.
  • Step Out: Use the Step Out button to finish executing the current function and return to the caller.
  • Conditional Breakpoints: Set breakpoints with conditions to only trigger the debugger when specific conditions are met.

This should provide you with a starting point for setting up and using debugging tools.

Error Reporting​

Enable error reporting in CodeIgniter to display errors and warnings during development. Open the index.php file in your CodeIgniter project and set the ENVIRONMENT constant to "development":

define('ENVIRONMENT', 'development');

Additionally, you can configure error reporting levels and error display settings in the index.php file.

Logging​

CodeIgniter provides a logging library to record application messages and errors. To enable logging, open the config.php file located in application/config and set the $config['log_threshold'] to the desired logging level.

You can then use the logging functions provided by CodeIgniter, such as $this->log->info('Message') or $this->log->error('Error message'), throughout your application.

Code Profilers​

CodeIgniter offers a built-in profiler to analyze the performance of your application. To enable the profiler, open the config.php file located in application/config and set $config['enable_profiler'] to TRUE.

You can then load the profiler in your controller or view using the $this->output->enable_profiler(TRUE) method. The profiler will display information about the queries, loaded views, and execution times.

This guide should provide you with a starting point for setting up and using debugging tools and techniques in VS Code for CodeIgniter, including error reporting, logging, and code profilers.