Debugging

• Debugging
  • Overview
  • General debugging steps
• Using Breakpoints
• Configuring Debugger Options
• Starting the Debugger Session
• Pausing and Resuming the Debugger Session
• Examining Suspended Program
• Stepping Through the Program
• Finding the Current Execution Point
• Monitoring the Debug Information
• Live Editing of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Viewing Actual HTML DOM
• Using JetBrains Chrome Extension
• Inline Debugging

Overview

This section describes the procedures that are common for various types of applications.

For details on debugging applications in the supported frameworks, refer to Language and Framework - Specific Guidelines.

PhpStorm provides a full range of facilities for debugging your source code:

• Breakpoints in PHP.
• Breakpoints in HTML, and JavaScript.
• Customizable breakpoint properties: conditions, pass count, etc.
• Frames, variables, and watches views in the debugger UI.
• Runtime evaluation of expressions.
• Support for the Xdebug tool to debug PHP applications.

General debugging steps

1. Configure the debugger options.
2. To debug CoffeeScript, TypeScript, and Dart code, you need source maps generated in addition to the JavaScript code.

   Source maps set the correspondence between lines in your original code and in the generated JavaScript code, otherwise your breakpoints will not be recognised and processed correctly.

   JavaScript and source maps are generated by transpiling the original code manually using the File Watcher of the corresponding type (CoffeeScript, TypeScript, or Dart). After that, you can debug the output JavaScript code.

   For details, see Using File Watchers, Transpiling CoffeeScript to JavaScript, and Transpiling TypeScript to JavaScript.

3. Define a run/debug configuration for the application to be debugged.
4. Create breakpoints in the source code.
5. Launch a debugging session.
6. Pause or resume the debugging session as required.
7. During the debugger session, step through the breakpoints, evaluate expressions, change values on-the-fly , examine suspended program, and set watches .

After you've started a debug session, the icon that marks the Debug tool window toggles to to indicate that the debug process is active.

If you want to see a list of all currently running applications, select Run | Show Running List from the main menu. A popup listing all active applications will be displayed in the top-right corner of the editor.