tracing a PHP script

Hi, all - --

I an building my first extensive PHP application. As I am doing so, I
have backed myself into a corner where some messed-up logic is
stumping me big-time.

Is there a tool or technique with which I can step through the script
or trace through it so I can see the point at which my logic is
dropping down the hopper?

Many TIA

Ken

"Swincher" <kixjaguar@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:mqsqa2pvtqu3qhgupv55e26nbp4eo15ce8@4ax.com...

> Is there a tool or technique with which I can step through the script
> or trace through it so I can see the point at which my logic is
> dropping down the hopper?

exit(); // what does not happen?

if(condition) { ... } else { die($variable); } // is $variable right?

if(condition) { die(condition); } // stop, is condition OK?

function($do_stuff) or die($do_stuff . ' went down the hopper.');

If you are getting specific errors you could log them into a database, flat file or what I
like to do sometimes, write it in your markup (hidden from view, unless you use your
browsing client's view source).

Here is an article that might prove more useful.

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-debug/

In general... are you receiving any errors? What is your code *not* doing? Can you show
us some source so we can have a go at it?

-Lost

Actual debug solutions...

Thanks to Alvaro in alt.php
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.p...2076d39306fd87

Xdebug
Then a program to use with it, WinCacheGrind
DBG at http://dd.cron.ru/dbg/ has a free version that might work.

Hope these help.

-Lost

Swincher wrote:
> Hi, all - --
>
> I an building my first extensive PHP application. As I am doing so, I
> have backed myself into a corner where some messed-up logic is
> stumping me big-time.
>
> Is there a tool or technique with which I can step through the script
> or trace through it so I can see the point at which my logic is
> dropping down the hopper?
>
> Many TIA
>
> Ken

You may want to investigate PHP unit testing. Googling the last three
words of my previous sentence reveals volumes of useful links :)

Cheers,

James

On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 20:21:36 -0400, "-Lost"
<spam_ninjaREMOVEME@REMOVEMEcomcast.net> wrote:

>In general... are you receiving any errors? What is your code *not* doing? Can you show
>us some source so we can have a go at it?

Thanks for the links and suggestions. No, I am not receiving errors as
these are logical flaws, not syntax errors. IOW, the program wasn't
doing what I wanted it to do. As it was getting more complex, I wasn't
able to find the flaws.

Yes, those references are past tense: I was able to figure this one
out, but I still will follow your links. It will make the next flaw
easier to diagnose.

Many thanks - - -

Ken

On Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:28:14 +1000, Centurion <spam_this@nowhere.tld>
wrote:

>You may want to investigate PHP unit testing. Googling the last three
>words of my previous sentence reveals volumes of useful links :)


I'll do that. Thank you.

Ken

Ive been using phped from nusphere which works good for me, it does have a
small price tag, but i realy like the editor and debugger..

"Swincher" <kixjaguar@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:mqsqa2pvtqu3qhgupv55e26nbp4eo15ce8@4ax.com...
> Hi, all - --
>
> I an building my first extensive PHP application. As I am doing so, I
> have backed myself into a corner where some messed-up logic is
> stumping me big-time.
>
> Is there a tool or technique with which I can step through the script
> or trace through it so I can see the point at which my logic is
> dropping down the hopper?
>
> Many TIA
>
> Ken

Swincher wrote:
> Hi, all - --
>
> I an building my first extensive PHP application. As I am doing so, I
> have backed myself into a corner where some messed-up logic is
> stumping me big-time.
>
> Is there a tool or technique with which I can step through the script
> or trace through it so I can see the point at which my logic is
> dropping down the hopper?
>
> Many TIA
>
> Ken

You could try PHPEdit

http://www.waterproof.fr/?PHPSESSID=...9605dda81c04ab


Thanks in Advance...
IchBin, Pocono Lake, Pa, USA http://weconsultants.phpnet.us
__________________________________________________ ________________________

'If there is one, Knowledge is the "Fountain of Youth"'
-William E. Taylor, Regular Guy (1952-)

It is very difficult correcting logic flow on a complicated app especially if you are using classes
with many functions it's hard to determine where variables are breaking down.

That is why I like to code in a step by step process, at the top of my pages and use a series of
includes. When doing something complex I stop the code flow with
echo "$vaiable1 $variable2";
exit;
and see am i getting the correct results here...
then I comment it out //
and do the same to the next section and so on. Only then when I know the logic is correct I will
then pull out code turn it into functions or parse it out to includes.

If using classes and functions. You will have to carefully test each function. extract/copy it out
and paste to test.php and rigorously test the function, try to break it, pass zeros, or null or '
and see what the results are.

if expecting arrays use print_r($arrayName); it will print out the array values.

It's a major pass in balls to track this shit down, must break it down to smallest components.

I recently downloaded an authorize.net php class from merchantplus.com by the way it's free and a
good study example. Anyway they class is way over the top and added tons of extra shit we didn't
need and in addition the validation logic was not working correctly. I spent an entire day trying to
figure out why - then said fart on it and wrote my own authorize.net script.

Anyway guess i'm going off on a tangent. Another trick I use is to insert javascript popups inside
php code and place it various spots to see are the vaiable being passed correct.
echo "<script language='javascript'> alert('$someVar');</script> ";





On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:35:49 -0500, Swincher <kixjaguar@comcast.net> wrote:

>Hi, all - --
>
>I an building my first extensive PHP application. As I am doing so, I
>have backed myself into a corner where some messed-up logic is
>stumping me big-time.
>
>Is there a tool or technique with which I can step through the script
>or trace through it so I can see the point at which my logic is
>dropping down the hopper?
>
>Many TIA
>
>Ken

Swincher wrote:
> Hi, all - --
>
> I an building my first extensive PHP application. As I am doing so, I
> have backed myself into a corner where some messed-up logic is
> stumping me big-time.
>
> Is there a tool or technique with which I can step through the script
> or trace through it so I can see the point at which my logic is
> dropping down the hopper?

I normally work with a lot of userdefined functions & classes. In the
development fase, I often do this:

$flow = array();

And in functions:
global $flow;
$flow[] = debug_backtrace();

Which will give you method / function, class, line, filename & arguments
used.
print_r($flow); will give me the total flow until that point.

You could print_r(array_slice($flow,-15)) to get only the last 15 statements
to avoid huge amounts of OK code to read through.

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus