PHP Console server library

PHP Console allows you to handle PHP errors & exceptions, dump variables, execute PHP code remotely and many other things using Google Chrome extension PHP Console and PhpConsole server library.

Overview

• See presentation video.
• Install Google Chrome extension PHP Console.
• See how it works on live demo page.
• PHP Console extension features list and screenshots.
• PHP Console server library features list.

Requirements

• PHP Console extension must be installed on Google Chrome.
• PHP 5.3 (or later) on server.

For projects with PHP < 5.3 you can try to use old deprecated version of PHP Console. But mention that actual last version is much more functional.

Installation

Composer

{
	"require": {
		"php-console/php-console": "3.*"
	}
}

This is the most recommended way, so PhpConsole will be autoloaded using Composer PSR-0 autoloader. Also it can be easy updated to last version using composer update.

GIT

git clone https://github.com/barbushin/php-console.git php-console

SVN

svn checkout https://github.com/barbushin/php-console/trunk php-console

Download .zip

Download and extract repository archive. Include in your project using:

require_once('/path/to/php-console/src/PhpConsole/__autoload.php');

Download .phar

Download PhpConsole.phar. Include in your project using:

require_once('phar:///var/www/path-to/PhpConsole.phar'); // autoload will be initialized automatically

Symfony framework bundle

See https://github.com/Vitre/php-console-bundle

Yii framework extension

See http://www.yiiframework.com/extension/php-console

Silex framework service provider

See https://github.com/barbushin/php-console-silex (thanks to @Chi-teck)

Laravel framework service provider

See https://github.com/barbushin/php-console-laravel

Drupal CMS module

See https://drupal.org/project/pc (thanks to @Chi-teck)

Usage

You can try most of PHP Console features on live demo server.

Connector

There is a PhpConsole\Connector class that initializes connection between PHP server and Google Chrome extension. Connection is initalized when PhpConsole\Connector instance is initialized:

$connector = PhpConsole\Connector::getInstance();

Also it will be initialized when you call PhpConsole\Handler::getInstance() or PhpConsole\Helper::register().

Communication protocol

PHP Console uses headers to communicate with client, so PhpConsole\Connector::getInstance() or PhpConsole\Handler::getInstance() must be called before any output. If headers are sent before script shut down or PHP Console response package size is out of web-server headers size limit, then PHP Console will store response data in PhpConsole\Storage implementation and send it to client in STDOUT, in additional HTTP request. So there is no limits in PHP Console response package size.

Troubleshooting with $_SESSION handler overridden in some frameworks

By default PHP Console uses PhpConsole\Storage\Session for postponed responses, so all temporary data will be stored in $_SESSION. But there is some problem with frameworks like Symfony and Laravel that overrides PHP session handler. In this case you should use any other PhpConsole\Storage implementation like:

// Can be called only before PhpConsole\Connector::getInstance() and PhpConsole\Handler::getInstance()
PhpConsole\Connector::setPostponeStorage(new PhpConsole\Storage\File('/tmp/pc.data'));

See all available PhpConsole\Storage implementations in /src/PhpConsole/Storage.

Strip sources base path

If you want to see errors sources and traces paths more short, call:

$connector->setSourcesBasePath('/path/to/project');

So paths like /path/to/project/module/file.php will be displayed on client as /module/file.php.

Works with different server encodings

If your internal server encoding is not UTF-8, so you need to call:

$connector->setServerEncoding('CP1251');

Initialization performance

PhpConsole server library is optimized for lazy initialization only for clients that have Google Chrome extension PHP Console installed. There is example of correct initialization PhpConsole on your production server.

Protect connection

Protect by password

$connector->setPassword('yohoho123', true);

Clients will need to enter password to get access to PHP Console server data. All passwords are stored on client as SHA-256 hashes. Second argument says that PHP Console authorization token will depends on client IP.

SSL only connection mode

$connector->enableSslOnlyMode();

So all PHP Console clients will be automatically redirected to HTTPS.

Protect connection by list of allowed IP masks

$connector->setAllowedIpMasks(array('192.168.*.*'));

Handle errors

There is a PhpConsole\Handler class that initializes PHP errors & exceptions handlers and provides the next features:

• Handle PHP errors(+fatal & memory limit errors) and exceptions.
• Ignore repeated errors.
• Call previously defined errors and exceptions handlers.
• Handle caught exceptions using $handler->handleException($exception).
• Debug vars using $handler->debug($var, 'some.tags').

Initialize PhpConsole\Handler in the top of your main project script:

$handler = PhpConsole\Handler::getInstance();
/* You can override default Handler behavior:
	$handler->setHandleErrors(false);  // disable errors handling
	$handler->setHandleExceptions(false); // disable exceptions handling
	$handler->setCallOldHandlers(false); // disable passing errors & exceptions to prviously defined handlers
*/
$handler->start(); // initialize handlers

Debug vars

PHP Console has multifunctional and smart vars dumper that allows to

• Dump any type variable.
• Dump protected and private objects properties.
• Limit dump by level, items count, item size and total size(see $connector->getDumper()).
• Dump objects class name.
• Smart dump of callbacks and Closure.
• Detect dump call source & trace(call $connector->getDebugDispatcher()->detectTraceAndSource = true).

How to call

Longest native debug method call:

PhpConsole\Connector::getInstance()->getDebugDispatcher()->dispatchDebug($var, 'some.tags');

Shorter call debug from Handler:

PhpConsole\Handler::getInstance()->debug($var, 'some.tags');

Shortest call debug using global PC class

PhpConsole\Helper::register(); // it will register global PC class
// ...
PC::debug($var, 'tag');
PC::tag($var);

Custom call debug by user defined function

function d($var, $tags = null) {
	PhpConsole\Connector::getInstance()->getDebugDispatcher()->dispatchDebug($var, $tags, 1);
}
d($var, 'some.tags');

Tags

• Debug tags argument is optional.
• Tags is a string with tags separated by dot(e.g. "low.db").
• Tags can be used to identify what exactly var was dumped.
• You can configure client to ignore displaying some tags.

Remote PHP code execution

PHP Console provide a way to execute PHP code on your server remotely, from Google Chrome extension terminal.

• Remote PHP code execution allowed only in password protected mode
• Every eval request is signed with unique SHA-256 token
• Result contains: output, return and time data
• Errors & exception occurred during PHP code execution will be handled

Configuration

$connector = PhpConsole\Connector::getInstance();
$connector->setPassword($password);

// Configure eval provider
$evalProvider = $connector->getEvalDispatcher()->getEvalProvider();
$evalProvider->addSharedVar('post', $_POST); // so "return $post" code will return $_POST
$evalProvider->setOpenBaseDirs(array(__DIR__)); // see http://php.net/open-basedir

$connector->startEvalRequestsListener(); // must be called in the end of all configurations

PSR-3 logger implementation

There is PHP Console implementation of PSR-3 interface. to integrate PHP Console with PSR-3 compitable loggers(e.g. Monolog). See PhpConsole\PsrLogger.

Jump to file

Read this article if you want to configure PHP Console extension to open errors/exceptions source file:line right in your IDE, just by click on the button in Notification popup.

Easy migrate from PhpConsole v1.x to v3.x

If you have used PhpConsole v1.x and want to migrate to v3.x without any code changes, so just use PhpConsole\OldVersionAdapter:

PhpConsole\OldVersionAdapter::register(); // register PhpConsole v1.x class emulator

// Call old PhpConsole v1 methods as is
PhpConsole::start(true, true, $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']);
PhpConsole::debug('Debug using old method PhpConsole::debug()', 'some,tags');
debug('Debug using old function debug()', 'some,tags');
echo $undefinedVar;
PhpConsole::getInstance()->handleException(new Exception('test'));

// Call new PhpConsole methods, if you want :)
PhpConsole\Connector::getInstance()->setServerEncoding('cp1251');
PhpConsole\Helper::register();
PC::debug('Debug using new methods');

But, anyway, if you can't migrate to new version of PHP Console because of using PHP < 5.3 on your servers, then you can use old deprecated version of PHP Console.