Okay, so XAMPP is up and working. Open the Admin page and click on PHPInfo at the top of the page.

So, where is how to install xDebug in your webserver

  • Select and copy the entire contents of your PHPInfo page. It may be that you only need a portion of it but I have always erred on the safe side.
  • You are going to paste this text into the window at https://xdebug.org/wizard
  • Click Analyse my phpinfo() output. What you are going to get is a link to download the correct version of xDebug for your webserver settings.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Untitled10.png 
Views:	49 
Size:	34.9 KB 
ID:	20022
  • Now the instructions, while seemingly straightforward, did not work for me. Go figure. So I spent about 4 hours yesterday going over every line trying to find out why. Attention to detail matters just like in coding from here on out. Download and save the file recommended. Copy that file to c:\xampp\php\ext and rename it to php_xdebug.dll Just FYI, that is an underline symbol NOT a dash (remember when I said attention to detail matters?!?)
  • You may be overwriting a php_xdebug.dll and that is okay.
  • Now, we need to setup and configure xDebug to work with Apache. Navigate to c:/xamp/php/php.ini and open this in a text editor. I suggest that you install and use Notepad++ in the future but Notepad works for this. Go to the bottom of the file and add this code

    Code:
    [xDebug]
    zend_extension = "c:/xampp/php/ext/php_xdebug.dll"
    xdebug.mode=debug
    xdebug.idekey = netbeans-xdebug
    xdebug.client_host = "localhost"
    xdebug.client_port = 9003
    xdebug.profiler_append = 0
    xdebug.output_dir = "c:\xampp\tmp\xdebug"
    xdebug.profiler_output_name = "cachegrind.out.%t-%s"
    xdebug.mode=debug
    xdebug.start_with_request=trigger
    xdebug.remote_autostart = 0
    xdebug.log = "c:\xampp\tmp\xdebug_remote.log"
    xdebug.show_local_vars = 9
    xdebug.output_dir = "c:\xampp\tmp"
    I am getting a bit ahead of myself here and let me explain. The xDebug install instructions say add zend_extension = xdebug. I have had issues getting that to work. I found other information from the web that use the full path of php_debug.dll and that seems to work. The other items are me jumping ahead a bit. These entries are who you configure xDebug for working with Netbeans. Now, save this file.
  • Stop and Restart Apache for your changes to take effect.
  • go to PHPInfo again. If you still have this page up, make sure you refresh it. Scroll down until you find a section like

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Untitled20.jpg 
Views:	48 
Size:	48.1 KB 
ID:	20024


This means you have done everything correctly.

Your webserver is now has xDebug installed and xDebug should be configured for use with Netbeans (we will find out together whether this last statement is true.) Now, .I seem to have lied. I cannot get to the different PHP versions within the forum post limits so I will do that in Part III.

Thank you for following me along in my journey. I hope that by seeing my struggle and my errors, that you can get to this point easier and faster!

Cheers
Chris