Debug messages

[karll]

Is there an easy way to print debug messages, either to a log file or to the screen somewhere?

(Yes, I'm more or less a total newbie to PHP and XF add-on development.)

 

[Chris D]

In PHP files, as we have access to the Zend Framework I prefer to use:

Zend_Debug::dump($variable);

In XenForo templates, you can use:

{xen:helper dump, $variable}

 

[karll]

Um, and then where does the output end up?

 

[Paul B]

It is output on the page, depending on where you place it in the template.

For example, try entering this in the forum_list template:

{xen:helper dump, $user}

Place it above the hook for the node list and it prints out above the node list.
Place it at the end of the template and it prints out below.

 

[Jeremy]

It roughly corresponds to this:
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.var-dump.php (although, it uses Zend_Debug I believe).

Its a way to tell what's in a variable.