PHP View Utilities Code Debugger – A Wrapper For print_r function

Greetings folks.

If you’ve ever gotten tired of having to type:

[sourcecode language=”php” htmlscript=”true”]
echo "<pre>";
print_r($some_var);
echo "</pre>";
[/sourcecode]

you are going to love the little debugger class I built. This is a very simple, basic class which doesn’t use patterns or anything fancy.  Actually, it may indeed use patterns that I’m not familiar with yet.  Nonetheless, in a nutshell it is a configurable, styleable wrapper for print_r.

The class is called ViewUtilities and it has one function in it — debug — which is a called as a static function.  The coolest feature about print_r is that you can put any variable type and it will faithfully show you that variable’s contents.  It is especially useful when viewing objects and arrays.  What ViewUtilities::debug does that print_r doesn’t already do is give you a way to easily differentiate which debug is which, when you use it in multiple places.  That differentiation is accomplished by a “styles” parameter that you pass when you invoke the function.

For instance, if you call the function this with a ‘2’ for the color scheme (third) parameter like this

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ViewUtilities::debug($someVar,’$someVar’, 2);

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your output will be black text on a a light blue background as in fig 1.

*********** (fig. 1) … (screenshot here)

If you call the function with a color scheme value of ‘4’, on the other hand, your output will be charcoal text on a beige background as in figure 2.

[sourcecode language=”php”]

ViewUtilities::debug($someVar,’$someVar’, 4);

[/sourcecode]

*********** (fig. 2) … (screenshot here)

[sourcecode language=”php”]

<?php

/**
* $Rev: 4$
* $Date: 2012-03-30 $
* @author Eric Hepperle <eric.hepperle@bookit.com>
* @date-created 2011-11-01
* @description
* contains tools for developers to use in debugging and troubleshooting
*
* @version 4.0
*
*/
class ViewUtilities {

// CONSTANTS
//
const DS = DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;

/**
* formats $var for pretty display using print_r()
* and echos the formatted result. can be used anywhere you’d use print_r.
*
* @return string $out
*
* @param mixed $var variable passed in. can be any displayable type;
* basically same rules as print_r.
*
* @param string $varName what you want to display as the variable being traced.
* note: there is no built-in function to return a passed argument
* name — that is something I will investigate further.
*
* @version 1.2 Added ability to set color scheme and ability to document
* what file a particular debug statement is located in. (02/13/12 – Eric)
* ——
* Color Schemes:
* 1 = black text, olive background
* 2 = black on light-blue
* 3 = light-gray on manilla
* 4 = charcoal on beige
* 5 = yellow on purple
* 6 = lightGray on manilla
* 7 = darkGreen on lightGray
*/
public static function debug($var,$description=”,$scheme=’4′) {

$description = $description!=NULL && $description!=” ? $description : date("Y-m-d, g:i a");

// names correspond to <background color>_<text color>
$colorSchemes = array(
‘1’ => ‘background:#b9b91b;color:black;’, // olive_black
‘2’ => ‘background:#c3d5fd;color:black;’, // lightBlue_black
‘3’ => ‘background:#ffffc4;color:#888a85;’, // manilla_lightGray
‘4’ => ‘background:#f5f5dc;color:#333333;’, // beige_charcoal
‘5’ => ‘background:purple;color:yellow;’, // purple_yellow
‘6’ => ‘background:#ffffc4;color:black;’, // manilla_black
‘7’ => ‘background:lightGray:color:#006400;’ // lightGray_darkGreen
);

// keep track of where our debug statements are
$trace = debug_backtrace();

//echo "<pre>$trace: ";
//print_r($trace[1]);
//echo "</pre>";

// if we have values keep them, otherwise set to empty – This is required
// to keep our output from throwing the "Undefined offset" error.
$traceParam_file = isset($trace[1][‘file’]) ? $trace[1][‘file’] : ” ;
$traceParam_line = isset($trace[1][‘line’]) ? $trace[1][‘line’] : ” ;
$traceParam_function = isset($trace[1][‘function’]) ? $trace[1][‘function’] : ” ;
$traceParam_class = isset($trace[1][‘class’]) ? $trace[1][‘class’] : ” ;

$debugInfo = array(
‘file’ => $traceParam_file,
‘line’ => $traceParam_line,
‘function’ => $traceParam_function,
‘class’ => $traceParam_class,
‘debugApp’ => __FILE__

);

// set style as yellow text on olive background
$out = "<div id=’divDebug’
style=’$colorSchemes[$scheme];
padding:10;
margin:10;
border-style:solid;
border-width:2;
border-color:red;
word-wrap:break-word;’>";

$out .= "<span style=’color:#888a85;’>This Debug App is located in: <i>{$debugInfo[‘debugApp’]}</i></span><br /><br />";
$out .= "<span style=’font-size:1.4em;font-weight:bold;’>DEBUG:</span>
<span style=’color:black;font-size:1.2em;’>{$description}</span>";

// $out .= "<br /><b>CALLED BY:</b> " . __FILE__ . "<br />";

$classParamInfo = ”;

if (!empty($traceParam_class) && class_exists($traceParam_class,false)) {

$classParamInfo = "<li><b>Class:</b> <span style=’color:red;font-style:italic;’>{$debugInfo[‘class’]}</span><li>";

}

$out .= <<<OUT
<div id=’callerInfo’ style='{$colorSchemes[$scheme]};
font-family: arial, tahoma, sans-serif;
width: 60%;
padding: 10px;
margin: 30px;

‘>
<b><u>THIS DEBUG STATEMENT IS LOCATED IN:</u></b><br /><br />
<ul style=’list-style-type:none;’>
<li><b>File:</b> <span style=’color:red;font-style:italic;’>{$debugInfo[‘file’]}</span></li>
<li><b>Line:</b> <span style=’color:red;font-style:italic;’>{$debugInfo[‘line’]}</span></li>
<li><b>Function:</b> <span style=’color:red;font-style:italic;’>{$debugInfo[‘function’]}</span><li>
$classParamInfo
</ul>
</div>
OUT;
$out .= " <pre>";
$out .= print_r($var,true);
$out .= "</pre>";
$out .= "</div>";

echo $out;

} // end function

} // end class

?>

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