Help debugging php code

Question

I'm hacking into a wordpress plugin. Since I'm inside a plugin that posts tweets, I use something like echo or print. I've identified one line that causes the problem, but not sure what exactly it is, since I can't print or echo.

$tagarray = wp_get_post_tags( $post_id); //returns an array
$tags = "tag:";
if (count($tagarray) > 0){
    foreach ( $tagarray as $tag ){
        //$tags .= "mytag ";  // This line  works when quotes are removed.
        //$tags = strval($tag);  //This doesn't.
    }
}

I've tried various manipulations of $tag, like casting etc, but nothing works. Any ideas on how to debug? My last resort would be to publish print values to a file. Any other ideas?

This is a plugin running on server side at the backend. So the var_dump etc doesn't get published on my browser. — Neo
– Neo, Commented Jan 6, 2011 at 12:10
You can still do print_r or others, you just have to do it differently. fopen a text file and output the results to it. — Phoenix
– Phoenix, Commented Jan 6, 2011 at 12:44

EAMann · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-06 18:42:54Z

1

Your code is incomplete.

Yes, wp_get_post_tags() returns a list of tags, but each tag in that list is itself an object containing the following:

term_id
name
slug
term_group
term_taxonomy_id
taxonomy
description
parent
count

So you need to do this instead:

$tagarray = wp_get_post_tags( $post_id ); //returns an array
$tags = "tag:";
if (count($tagarray) > 0){
    foreach ( $tagarray as $tag ){
        $tags .= strval( $tag->name );
    }
}

answered Jan 6, 2011 at 18:42

EAMann

4,1462 gold badges31 silver badges49 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Poelinca Dorin · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-06 12:03:37Z

1

In you're loop use :

var_dump($tag);
die();

You should be able to see exactly what type of is $tag and what content . the loop will stop imediatly after the first value .

answered Jan 6, 2011 at 12:03

Poelinca Dorin

9,7052 gold badges41 silver badges43 bronze badges

Comments

piddl0r · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-06 12:05:05Z

1

I find FirePHP (addon for FireBug/Firefox) very useful for debugging php, you can send messages, arrays, variables to the firebug console before headers are sent.

answered Jan 6, 2011 at 12:05

piddl0r

2,4492 gold badges23 silver badges36 bronze badges

Comments

Nathan · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-04 20:38:09Z

1

for debugging php I use PhpED you can set breakpoints in the code without any modifications, so there is no chance that you'll leave some echos in the code.

answered May 4, 2011 at 20:38

Nathan

111 bronze badge

Comments

sshet · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-06 12:02:55Z

0

for debugging use var_dump or print_r

answered Jan 6, 2011 at 12:02

sshet

1,1561 gold badge6 silver badges18 bronze badges

Comments

Anush Prem · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-06 12:07:12Z

0

that doesn't work because you missed to concatation operator (.) in the second line

$tagarray = wp_get_post_tags( $post_id); //returns an array
$tags = "tag:";
if (count($tagarray) > 0){
    foreach ( $tagarray as $tag ){
        //$tags .= "mytag ";  // This line  works when quotes are removed.
        $tags .= strval($tag);  //This will work Changed = to .=
    }
}

And if are looking for debugging the code FirePHP is a good tool, also you could use any PHP IDE with builtin debugging like eclipse or something.

And in wordpress you can use WP-Debug Plugin

answered Jan 6, 2011 at 12:07

Anush Prem

1,4718 silver badges16 bronze badges

2 Comments

Neo Over a year ago

I had intentionally deleted the "." to simplify my code. No joy. :(

Neo Over a year ago

Does WP-Debug version work with recent version of WP. It was last updated in 2007.

Phoenix · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-06 12:59:07Z

0

To debug, since it won't output any sort of debugging info to the browser, do this, or something similar:

$logger = fopen('debug.log','a');
fwrite($logger,"Begin Debug - " . time() . "\n------------\n");
$tagarray = wp_get_post_tags( $post_id); //returns an array
$tags = "tag:";
if (count($tagarray) > 0){
    foreach ( $tagarray as $tag ){
        //$tags .= "mytag ";  // This line  works when quotes are removed.
        //$tags = strval($tag);  //This doesn't.
        fwrite($logger,$tag . "\n");
    }
}
fwrite($logger,$tags . "\n");
fwrite($logger,print_r($tagarray) . "\n");
fwrite($logger,"----------\n End Debug \n\n");
fclose($logger);

edited Jan 6, 2011 at 12:59

answered Jan 6, 2011 at 12:51

Phoenix

4,5361 gold badge23 silver badges13 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Help debugging php code

7 Answers 7

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

7 Answers 7

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related