Using xdebug with PhpStorm - php

Question

I can't get my PhpStorm IDE to work with xdebug.
My current setup is the following:
PhpStorm 2017.1.4
MacOS Sierra 10.12.5
Here are the steps that I followed.
I have installed php with the following command. I have added the postgres parameter because I need it later to connect to a PostgreSQL database.
brew install php71 --with-postgresql
The next step is to install XDebug with the following command
brew install php71-xdebug
So the next step that I got from the documentation (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/configuring-xdebug.html) is to edit the php.ini file with the following content:
[Xdebug]
zend_extension="<path to php_xdebug.dll>"
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_port="<the port for Xdebug to listen to>" (the default port is 9000)
xdebug.profiler_enable=1
xdebug.profiler_output_dir="<AMP home\tmp>"
Just some questions about those fields and XDebug.
So I guess XDebug is some kind of service that runs on the remote_port and that PhpStorm is using to write data to? Or do you have to specify the port where the application you want to test is running?
What exactly is the profiler thing? And can the output dir be anything I can choose?
So this is my php.ini file that I think it should be:
[xdebug]
zend_extension="/usr/local/Cellar/php71-xdebug/2.5.4/xdebug.so"
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_host=localhost
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.profiler_enable=1
xdebug.profiler_output_dir="/usr/tmp"
That's it for the php.ini. So I have to check the settings in my PhpStorm IDE. And those are the following:
So that is my setup. In my project I just have one index.php with <?php echo phpinfo(); ?> I just click the Chrome icon so it opens directly in the browser to check if XDebug is there. I see the following result.
So I thought to myself ok let's try some debugging. So I changed my index.php file to the following
$i = 2;
$j = $i + 2;
echo $j
I've put a breakpoint on the 2nd line. And when I run it, it never stops at the breakpoint. What is needed to do that or am I wrong in my configuration somewhere?

Answer 1

To make Xdebug remote debugging working on your page, you need to set a cookie in your browser, telling the server you want to debug the page, there are many extensions for that, the most known is Xdebug helper in Chrome.
I also suggest you to follow this tutorial Zero-configuration debugging, it is very detailed and clear IMO.
If you still have problems i'll try to help you with pleasure :)