php sandbox

A lightweight, Docker-based PHP and MySQL sandbox environment designed for developers to easily learn, test, and debug PHP code. It supports multiple PHP versions from 7.4 up to 8.4, integrates popular tools like Xdebug for step-by-step debugging, PHPStan for static code analysis, and PHP CS Fixer for code cleanup. The sandbox features a LAMP stack built on Alpine Linux with Apache, php-fpm, and MariaDB, offering HTTPS out of the box and support for multiple virtual hosts. Its flexible architecture allows hot reloading of configuration changes and seamless integration with Visual Studio Code, making it ideal for efficient PHP development and profiling in a containerized environment.

features

Alpine Linux, Apache, php-fpm and MariaDB (LAMP)
php 8.4, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 8.0, 7.4 along with the most commonly used extensions
Just works with any domain name and https is configured out of the box
Support for multiple virtual hosts
code cleanup using php cs fixer
code static analysis using phpstan
code profiling with SPX profiler or Xdebug
Apache and php configuration files are exposed on the host for easy editing
all changes to configuration files are automatically applied inside the container (hot reload)
Xdebug is configured for step by step debugging and profiling in Visual Studio Code
javascript step by step debugging in Visual Studio Code

architecture

The setup consists of 2 Docker images with a combined size of approximately 120MB compressed, 500MB uncompressed.

web server
- Apache 2.4.63 with SSL
- php-fpm 8.4.8
- Xdebug 3.4.3 - debugger and profiler
- SPX prolifer 0.4.18
- mailpit
- composer 2.8.9
- zsh 5.9
- Alpine 3.22.0 with edge repositories
database server
- MariaDB 11.4.4
- zsh 5.9
- Alpine 3.21.0

install

You can either download the latest version or git clone the repository.

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/8ctopus/php-sandbox.git

For php 8.3, 8.2 or 8.1, select the image in docker-compose.yml. For older php versions, you need to download an older version of php-sandbox and then choose the correct php version in docker-compose.yml as the architecture changed since.

start coding

Start Docker Desktop then:

cd php-sandbox

# start containers in detached mode on Windows in cmd
start /B docker-compose up

# start containers in detached mode on linux and mac in shell
docker-compose up &

Note: On Windows file changes notification to the container doesn't work with the WSL 2 engine, you need to use the Hyper-V engine. Uncheck Use WSL 2 based engine. What this means, is that files you update on Windows are not updated inside the container unless you use Hyper-V.

access sites

By default, there are 2 sites you can access from your browser

http(s)://localhost/
http(s)://(www.)test.com/

The source code is located inside the sites/*/html/public/ directories.

domain names

Setting a domain name is done by using virtual hosts. The virtual hosts configuration files are located in sites/config/vhosts/. By default, localhost and test.com are already defined as virtual hosts.

For your browser to resolve test.com, add this line to your system's host file. Editing the file requires administrator privileges.

On Windows: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Linux and Mac: /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 test.com www.test.com

https

A self-signed https certificate is already configured for localhost and test.com.
To remove "Your connection is not private" nag screens, import the certificate authority file sites/config/ssl/certificate_authority.pem to your computer's Trusted Root Certification Authorities then restart your browser.

In Windows, open certmgr.msc > click Trusted Root Certification Authorities, then right click on that folder and select Import... under All Tasks.

On Linux and Mac: [fill blank]

For newly created domains, you will need to create the SSL certificate:

docker-exec -it web zsh
selfsign certificate /sites/domain/ssl domain.com,www.domain.com,api.domain.com /sites/config/ssl

Note: Importing the certificate authority creates a security risk since all certificates issued by this new authority are shown as perfectly valid in your browsers.

Xdebug debugger

This repository is configured to debug php code in Visual Studio Code. To start debugging, open the VSCode workspace then select Run > Start debugging then open the site in the browser.
The default config is to stop on entry which stops at the first line in the file. To only stop on breakpoints, set stopOnEntry to false in .vscode/launch.json.

For other IDEs, set the Xdebug debugging port to 9001.

To troubleshoot debugger issues, check the sites/localhost/logs/xdebug.log file.

If host.docker.internal does not resolve within the container, update the xdebug client host within docker/etc/php/conf.d/xdebug.ini to the docker host ip address.

xdebug.client_host = 192.168.65.2

Mailpit

Mailpit catches outgoing emails and displays them in a web interface.

http://localhost:8025

code cleanup

PHP Coding Standards Fixer is a tool to automatically fix PHP coding standards issues.

cd sites/localhost/html
composer fix(-risky)

check code for issues

PHPStan is a PHP static analysis tool, it can discover bugs in your code without running it

cd sites/localhost/html
composer phpstan

code profiling

Code profiling comes in 2 variants: Xdebug and SPX.

Note: Disable Xdebug debugger xdebug.remote_enable for accurate measurements.

Xdebug

To start profiling, add the XDEBUG_PROFILE variable to the request as a GET, POST or COOKIE.

http://localhost/?XDEBUG_PROFILE

Profiles are stored in the log directory and can be analyzed with tools such as webgrind.

SPX

Access the SPX control panel
Check checkbox Whether to enable SPX profiler for your current browser session. No performance impact for other clients.
Run the script to profile
Refresh the SPX control panel tab and the report will be available at the bottom of the screen. Click it to show the report in a new tab.

database access

You can connect to the database using your favorite MySQL client (on Windows, HeidiSQL for example)

hostname: localhost / sandbox-db
user: root
password: 123
port: 3306

access container

# web container
docker exec -it sandbox zsh

# database container
docker exec -it sandbox-db zsh

more docker commands

# view logs
docker-compose logs -f

# stop containers
docker-compose stop

# delete containers
docker-compose down

# delete containers and volume (deletes database)
docker-compose down -v

## get shell access to container
docker exec -it sandbox zsh
docker exec -it sandbox-db zsh

extend the docker image

In this example, we add the php-curl extension.

docker-compose up --detach
docker exec -it sandbox zsh
apk add php-curl
exit

docker-compose stop
docker commit sandbox sandbox-curl:dev

To use this image, update the reference in docker-compose.yml.

Sublime Text

If you like Sublime Text, checkout the configuration I'm using.

credits

neatcss

License

8ctopus/php-sandbox

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