How to setup a complete PHP development environment on windows

This article explains how to setup a webserver, Eclipse (IDE), Debugging support (breakpoint and stuff), SVN support on Windows

Web Server

You need php5 + Mysql + Apache 2

Download EasyPHP-2.0b1-setup.exe on http://garr.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/quickeasyphp/EasyPHP-2.0b1-setup.exe

Install it.

You can change the DocumentRoot value in the httpd.conf file to match your working directory (for example F:/piwik)

IDE Eclipse

You now need to get eclipse with PHP support.

Download Eclipse + PHP = PDT pdt-all-in-one-incubation-S20070910_RC1-win32.zip on http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/downloads/?release=S20070910-RC1

Unzip

PHP Debugger Xdebug

You need to download the Xdebug DLL for windows

php Debugger = XDebug php_xdebug-2.0.2-5.2.5.dll on http://www.xdebug.org/files/php_xdebug-2.0.2-5.2.5.dll

Copy the DLL in C:\Program Files\EasyPHP 2.0b1\php5\ext

Rename in php_xdebug.dll

Add at the end of your php.ini the following lines

zend_extension_ts="C:\Program Files\EasyPHP 2.0b1\php5\ext\php_xdebug.dll"

xdebug.remote_enable=1

xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp

xdebug.remote_mode=req

xdebug.idekey=default

Restart Apache

Check that the apache error.log doesn't contain any error message

Check that a "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" displays a box "xdebug" somewhere in the phpinfo output

SVN support

You need SVN support to checkout files from the piwik svn repository.

Install Subclipse found on http://subclipse.tigris.org/install.html

Final touch

Customize your environment by changing values in Window > Preferences > PHP

In piwik all source code files are using the UTF8 charset!

Create a new project (File > New > Project > SVN > Checkout the project from http://dev.piwik.org/svn/trunk)

Testing your environment

Try to debug:

• set a breakpoint in index.php
• Run > Open Debug Dialog
• if needed, select "PHP Web Page" and click on "New launch configuration"
  • Server debugger = Xdebug
  • File > Browse the index.php to be debugged
  • Url > Unclick Auto generate > write the URL to the index.php
• Click Debug, it should load a new page in Firefox and it should trigger the breakpoint in Eclipse

Screenshots

Screenshot of IDE eclipse with php support

Screenshot of IDE eclipse with php support + XDEBUG debug feature enabled. The eclipse php debug feature is very very useful!!

You can display variables values, look at the backtrace, breakpoint anywhere, launch firefox automatically from eclipse to start debugging.

Conclusion

You should have a fully working IDE with PHP Debugging, SVN support, etc. Any questions?