# PHP Debugging without XOOPS

## 3.1     History

Frankblack was frustrated with debugging his AJAX applications using just the standard Debug Mode, therefore he ended up using FireBug + FirePHP as addons for Firefox, and he rewrote XOOPS class/logger/render.php to output the XOOPS debug messages to FirePHP, resulting in a very flexible solution. Trabis contributed as well, and now we have a solution that is very helpful to XOOPS Developers.

## 3.2     Installation

Important – you have to have Firefox to use Firebug and FirePHP! Recommended: Ver. 4.0

There are few simple steps to get you going:

1. Download and install in Firefox the newest version of Firebug (currently 1.7) from here: <http://getfirebug.com/>
2. Download and install in Firefox the latest version of FirePHP extension:&#x20;

   <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firephp/>
3. Download and install the FireDebug 1.6 for XOOPS 2.5.x
4. Go to xoops\_data/configs/xoopsconfig.php and change the DebugLogger configuration to:

```php
    /**#@+
     * Debug logger for XOOPS
     *
     * <ul>Choose logger to use
     *  <li> legacy </li>
     *  <li> pqp </li>
     *  <li> firephp </li>
     * </ul>
     */
    "debugLogger" => firephp,
    /**#@-*/
```

and you’re ready to go.

## 3.3     Using FirePHP/Firebug with XOOPS

After installing the above tools, you can add this line your PHP file:

```php
require_once XOOPS_ROOT_PATH.'/class/logger/firephp/FirePHPCore/fb.php';
```

and you can start sending messages to FirePHP:

```php
FB::log('Log message');
FB::info('Info message');
FB::warn('Warn message');
FB::error('Error message');
FB::trace('Trace message');
```

![Untitled-1.jpg](https://1751648002-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LD6Mk8OWwSQm0a9Fo5y%2F-LD6N29eBheBSrcMR0tf%2F-LD6N2iJ4CnfsN77ocWr%2FUntitled-8.jpg?generation=1526984622411625\&alt=media)

**Figure 7: Firebug with FirePHP and XOOPS debug messages**

The messages from XOOPS are coming from XOOPS Debug, but XOOPS just redirects them to Firebug, so you have all debug messages conveniently in one location.

![Untitled-1.jpg](https://1751648002-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LD6Mk8OWwSQm0a9Fo5y%2F-LD6N29eBheBSrcMR0tf%2F-LD6N2iNtWq6_wLys__w%2FUntitled-9.jpg?generation=1526984622412514\&alt=media)

**Figure 8: XOOPS Debug messages in XOOPS**

![Untitled-1.jpg](https://1751648002-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LD6Mk8OWwSQm0a9Fo5y%2F-LD6N29eBheBSrcMR0tf%2F-LD6N2iSNX7AX72Yrc6j%2FUntitled-10.jpg?generation=1526984622405632\&alt=media)

**Figure 9: XOOPS Debug messages in Firebug**

Additional advantage is that you also have Smarty Debug Output as well – all in one location. When we want to see values of variables, we can send it as well, e.g.

```php
FB::log($index_admin,'this is our ModuleAdmin class');
```

This will show in Firebug as:

![Untitled-1.jpg](https://1751648002-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LD6Mk8OWwSQm0a9Fo5y%2F-LD6N29eBheBSrcMR0tf%2F-LD6N2iW_GKbEINE8WlR%2FUntitled-11.jpg?generation=1526984622385709\&alt=media)

Since there is more information than the line can hold, we can just click on that line and a new window will open with all the details:

![Untitled-1.jpg](https://1751648002-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LD6Mk8OWwSQm0a9Fo5y%2F-LD6N29eBheBSrcMR0tf%2F-LD6N2iY2POkbdRsJ1H7%2FUntitled-12.jpg?generation=1526984622442144\&alt=media)

**Figure 10: Firebug with detailed FirePHP variable info**