Since this took me quite a while to figure out, I thought I’d include the steps here for others.

Installing Xdebug

Over SSH, I ran the following:

$ pecl install xdebug

Configuring Xdebug in php.ini

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Module Settings ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
zend_extension=/usr/lib/php/modules/xdebug.so
 
[xdebug]
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.idekey=PHPSTORM-XDEBUG
xdebug.remote_connect_back=1
 
[Date]

Note the use of zend_extension; as of PHP 5.3, this is the only one that works (extension=…) will appear to function, but never connect!

Also, I used xdebug.remote_connect_back=1 – this allows connections from anywhere. But since I’ve configured my server to load a separate php.ini for each site (sorry, this is outside the scope of this discussion), and the entire site is under development and protected by .htaccess, I didn’t have to worry about other people debugging remotely.

An alternative to using remote_connect_back is to specify the remote_host to your local ip address:

xdebug.remote_host=0.0.0.0 ;your ip address
;xdebug.remote_connect_back=0

 Alternative: Loading via .htaccess instead of php.ini

Alternately, I could have dropped a .htaccess file into my root directory for the virtualhost, if the php.ini for each site were too much trouble:

php_value  zend_extension=/usr/lib/php/modules/xdebug.so
php_flag   xdebug.remote_enable on
php_value  xdebug.remote_port 9000
php_value  xdebug.idekey PHPSTORM-XDEBUG
php_flag   xdebug.remote_connect_back on

Configuring PhpStorm

I followed these instructions to the letter. Make sure you set up the “PHP Remote Debug” and not the “PHP Server” option if you’re using my list here as a guide (both work, I just chose the remote)

Remember to get those IDEKEY values to match up in the editor and on the server!

Configure Firewalls

On CentOS, I use apf, so I configured my firewall by adding port 9000 into the following settings: IG_TCP_PORTS, EG_TCP_PORTS

Then I restarted apf:

$ /etc/init.d/apf restart

At home, I opened a connection in my firewall by adding a redirect for port 9000 to my personal PC.

Starting it Up

Remember to reload Apache’s config!

$ /etc/init.d/httpd reload

Make sure PhpStorm is set to break on first line, or you won’t know if it worked! (you need the debugger to get involved):

Start the PhpStorm Remote Debug:

Make sure to click the “listen for connections” icon!

A quick note on semantics here: It is not technically necessary to have the debug server running and “listen for connections” clicked. Listen for connections will, in fact, start the debugger when an incoming connection is received. However, for initial testing, having the debugger actually ON was very helpful in being sure PhpStorm wasn’t failing to start incoming connections.

Connect to your IP address from the web server to make sure it can talk to your IDE:

$ telnet 0.0.0.0 9000

Add XDEBUG_SESSION_START=PHPSTORM-XDEBUG in the URL of the site to initiate a connection:

Witness debugging in all its glory!

Browser Plugins

There are browser plugins for Chrome and Firefox that make remote connections a breeze; you no longer have to type the parms into the URL. I’ve used both of these with success and highly recommend this simplification.

Mindomo is a great, free product for mind mapping. You can utilize it online for free to create some great looking and functional maps.

There is also a pro version at the great price of $6/month, which provides a desktop version, allowing you to store the files locally and organize with folders and sharing capabilities.

With the upcoming addition of collaboraiton, and there continual efforts to improve the product, it’s quickly becoming a great brainstorming and outlining tool.

After learning dvorak, and trying several programmer variants, I decided to build my own flavor.

I did this for several reasons:

• Regular dvorak doesn’t improve the symbol locations for programming, and makes some of them even harder to reach.
• I didn’t like the position of the U and I characters and read studies that show switching them improves finger travel.
• For development, the placement of [], {}, and () were unbearable.
• I write novels as well, and none of the developer variants place quote keys and dash in a convenient spot.

So, using the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator, here’s what I grew over a month’s worth of tweaking (click for a larger view):

The highlights:

• U and I switched from classic dvorak
• Number keys moved so most frequent used on strongest fingers
• Number keys switched with symbols for easier development, assumes that long numbers would use the numeric keypad anyways
• Caps lock key shifts number line, for easy numeric entry
• ; and : –used incessantly in programming, easier to reach instead of jammed on the old z key
• ‘ and ” get their own keys (no shift to press for them – benefits programming and writing)
• % and ^ symbol get the hardest to reach keys, but they are hardly used in writing or programming, so great

You can download this layout, including printable images and the source file (allowing for your own tweaks) as a zip file. Enjoy! ]]> http://zenovations.com/blog/2009/02/the-zdvorak-keyboard-layout/feed/ 2