Solution to debug PHP code on remote server, using remote IDE

php, xdebug

Solution

We just released support for debugging PHP with Xdebug inside Cloud9 IDE.

You can place breakpoints (normal or conditional), step over/in/out, set watch expressions, view the call stack, and inspect variables and values. There's also an REPL mode to evaluate code directly.

It's ready to try, but please make sure the correct dependencies are installed on the workspace by running the following commands:

$ npm install -g debug
$ sudo apt-get install php5-xdebug

Set your breakpoints, then click Run > Run With > PHP (cli) to start the debugger and PHP CLI script.

Would love to hear what your feedback is. Our goal is to add support for debugging PHP web pages and Python soon. The implementation is available open-source on GitHub (https://github.com/c9/c9.ide.run.debug.xdebug)

I also made a quick demo video to show you how it works.

Problem

There is an IIS server with the XDEBUG extension installed, running a PHP application. I can't change nothing on this server. Sometimes, the dev team here needs to debug it, without changing code. Just put some breakpoints and execute it step by step. I can do it from my computer using Eclipse and remote debugging. But I would like to create a Debian server, in a VM, to make it easy for anyone with just a browser to place breakpoints and step debug that server, without needing to set up an environment. I tried many Web-Based IDEs (codiad, cloud9, etc), but they don't offer XDEBUG integration. Is there any web-based IDE that I can install in my own server that offers PHP debugging? Please read this paragraph again and don't answer with spam Or, is there anyway I could run something in the server side such as Sublime Editor, Notepad ++, or whatever, and see it running in a browser? Maybe a Java applet. Any bright ideas will be very much appreciated! Thanks!

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