How to use Nette Debugger in CakePHP

Old CakePHP (version 2) has limited possibilities how to debug code. However, there is a great tool from Nette Framework which enables to debug code in FireFox. You need to install FireBug extension for debugging and FirePHP which enables to log data within HTTP headers.

This debugger outputs debugging data into HTTP headers, not HTML body so you don't mess up your website.

This is how looks Nette Debugger:

 

This is Nette Debugger HTTP header data in FirePHP

Nette Debugger is great for arrays too

How to enable Nette Debugger in old CakePHP

require_once('Nette/Debug.php');

NDebug::enable(NDebugger::PRODUCTION);

// Uncomment following 3 lins for testing how nette works

// NDebug::fireLog('Hello World'); // render string into Firebug console

// NDebug::fireLog($_SERVER); // or even arrays and objects

// NDebug::fireLog(new Exception('Test Exception')); // or exceptions

// Disable CakePHP error handling, see cake/libs/debugger.php

// See: http://book.cakephp.org/1.3/en/The-Manual/Common-Tasks-With-CakePHP/Debugging.html

// Now, Nette will handle also ALL errors from view templates

define('DISABLE_DEFAULT_ERROR_HANDLING', true);

// Turn on errors on view errors (debugging)

// See http://book.cakephp.org/1.3/en/The-Manual/Developing-with-CakePHP/Configuration.html

// 0 = Production mode. No output.

// 1 = Show errors and warnings.

// 2 = Show errors, warnings, and SQL.

// [SQL log is only shown when you add

$this->element(‘sql_dump’) to your view or layout.]

Configure::write('debug', 2);