Hi Anthony,

Your advice was spot on. I had mapped a path incorrectly because I had hard-coded a URL link in template.php and the URL in Eclipse that was being called was being redirected to the wrong location. The print_r advice led me to right conclusion.

Second, in Eclipse the externally configured Firefox browser wasn't interacting with the debugger as expected because I opened and shutdown the browser at the end of each debugging session. Now that I've stopped shutting down the browser after each debugging cycle (and left the browser window open) that problem has gone away too.

Third, according to Chris Charlon you can debug any arbitrary URL and you don't have to always start your debug session from index.php. However I haven't had the time to check it out yet. Chris says:

>> You can debug a single URL, you must change the project settings (right-click > properties). You can save multiple "web servers" >> in a project, so you can have one for index.php and one for any other URL you're concentrating on.

>> When debugging a template you must visit a node to see it in action, usually.

Lastly, and here's another question. I am also wondering why Step Filters in Eclipse PDT don't seem to work. From what I have read so far it hasn't been implemented thus far, but I just wanted to confirm this myself because it would be a great effort saver if Step Filters were implemented as expected, and you exclude certain source directories, while you're debugging.

Thanks for your help.

Moses


On 02/06/2010 11:37, Anth wrote:

Hi Moses,

If you're getting your debugger to stop at all then most of your setup
must be fine.  Are you sure that your node-product.tpl.php is being
called?  Maybe throw a print_r or something in it to make sure.  I know
that I have seen bugs around node template suggestions not being used
unless node.tpl.php is in the same file.  If the only command is
terminate then all server side processing is done usually.  Is the page
rendering?

You won't see anything in the browser until Drupal has finished
processing everything, this is mainly because all the work goes into
building up an output string and the last thing that index.php does is
basically just write that string out.  At this point control goes back
to the browser until something (a page navigate or a submit) sends
control back to the server and it all goes through it again.  It will
only then stop if where you're sending it to has a breakpoint set up.

I'm pretty sure it has to be a php file, but don't quote me on that.  I
think I once tried to get it to launch to a html file for a non Drupal
project but didn't have much luck.  The main reason it's index.php that
needs to be called is that index.php does a call to drupal_bootstrap so
that all it's variables and database access is set up so calling to
another file wouldn't really work.

HTH.
Anthony.

On 6:59 AM, Moses Elias (2) wrote:
  

I am an Eclipse PDT newbie, so apologies if my questions are basic.

THE ENVIRONMENT
================
I have set up Eclipse PDT 2.1.3 with xDebug and I am trying to debug a
Drupal application with LAMPP on Ubuntu via my localhost. I have
installed the Drupal Plugin for Eclipse.

I have set breakpoints in page-front.tpl.php and page.tpl.php and the
debugger stops in the files where expected.


THE PROBLEM
============
However, I have set a breakpoint in a node-product.tpl.php file
(derived from node.tpl.php) but when I click Run>  Resume and I
navigate to the correct page in the browser window, the debugger just
refuses to stop execution in it. At this point under Run, the only
command highlighted is Terminate, so I don't know where in the
application I am at present.

If the application is still executing, how do I break out of the loop
and get back control so I can start debugging?

Secondly, I am not certain why I am not able to get into that file and
perhaps there's a good reason I am not aware of. This is my primary
aim here.

Also, my Firefox External browser opens when I initiate a debug
session, but there doesn't seem to be a relationship between Run>
Step Over (F6) and what I see in the browser window. The browser is
expecting user input. How do I coordinate between the browser and the
Eclipse IDE so it's interactive between the two? An action in one
makes it pause or continue in the other. That means, when I click in
browser window, it should show me where I am in the debugger.

I have one more question. When I start a Drupal debugging session most
people set up the Run>  Run Configurations to start at index.php. My
question is can I start a debug session at some arbitrary URL address
or does it always have to begin with a .php file? How about a .tpl.php
file located not in the htdocs folder, but in the theme folder itself?
Should it be a .tpl.php file, or can it be a URL address?

I know these are basic questions, but any leads would be appreciated.