64 Bit Jungle

OK, so I have x64 Eclipse successfully installed and running with all the plugins I use for Web Application Development. But what about debugging? Sure, var_dump(), echo, print and so on are all valuable to me when debugging a script, but it’s always good to have more information.

Xdebug is a fantastic PHP extension, which is written by one of the PHP Core Developers, Derick Rethans. The current version is 2.0.3, and I set about installing it on my system, and integrating it into Eclipse PDT today.

Xdebug can be installed in a few different ways - by downloading the binaries from the site, compiling the source, or via PECL:

sudo pecl install xdebug

Some days, I just prefer to download compile the source, as it gives me more of an understanding of what is being installed and where, and this is one of those days:

cd ~/
mkdir xdebug
cd xdebug
wget http://www.xdebug.org/link.php?url=xdebug203
tar -zxvf xdebug-2.0.3.tgz
cd xdebug-2.0.3

The packages phpize and php-config are required to install Xdebug, and can be obtained by installing the relevant PHP development packages:

sudo apt-get install php4-dev

or

sudo apt-get install php5-dev

depending on the PHP version installed. After unzipping the Xdebug source, I ran

phpize

which output:

PHP Api Version: 20041225
Zend Module Api No: 20060613
Zend Extension Api No: 220060519

I then checked this against the table at http://www.xdebug.org/docs/install#phpize to see if my PHP version (5.2.3) was compatible with Xdebug - it matched up to the table’s 5.2.x PHP version row, so I went ahead and installed:

./configure --enable-xdebug --with-php-config=/usr/bin/php-config
make

which created a file xdebug.so in the modules subdirectory. This file needs to be copied (or moved) to the PHP Extension directory, which on my system is in /usr/lib/php5/20060613/. An easy way to find the PHP extension directory is to run:

locate mysql.so

ok, so I copied the xdebug.so to the extension directory:

sudo cp modules/xdebug.so /usr/lib/php5/20060613/

So far so good. Now PHP needs to be told about the extension, and to load it. This can be done by adding

zend_extension="/usr/lib/php5/20060613/xdebug.so"

to the php.ini file. However, on my Ubuntu system, the PHP extensions are activated by adding an .ini file to the /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d directory, for each extension installed. The .ini file is the extension_name.ini, so I created a file called xdebug.ini:

cd /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d
gksu gedit xdebug.ini

which for now, contains a single line:

zend_extension="/usr/lib/php5/20060613/xdebug.so"

After restarting the Apache server

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

I created a file called test.php in my Web Root directory, containing a call to the phpinfo() function:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

and pointed my browser to http://localhost/test.php. Just before the “PHP Credits” section, is a small box containing information on Zend - and now, with a successful Xdebug installation, additional information on Xdebug:

The same information can be found by opening a Terminal and running

php -m

to output the loaded modules, and towards the end of the output, you should see

[Zend Modules]
Xdebug

alternatively, run

php -i | grep Xdebug

and if Xdebug has been installed successfully, you should see

with Xdebug v2.0.3, Copyright (c) 2002-2007, by Derick Rethans

Now, Xdebug needs to be enabled before any scripts can be debugged! So, in the php.ini file (or in my case, the newly created /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/xdebug.ini file) I added the lines:

xdebug.remote_enable=On
xdebug.remote_host="localhost"
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.remote_handler="dbgp"

and restarted Apache again:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

running

php -i | grep xdebug

in the Terminal, or using the test.php file containing phpinfo() shows that the new settings are being used, and Xdebug is active and running.

Configuring Eclipse PDT:

Setting up Eclipse PDT to use the Xdebug extension is pretty simple. In Eclipse PDT, I opened Window -> Preferences, then clicked on PHP, expanded the tree, and selected Debug. I Chose Xdebug from the pull down menu for the PHP Debugger, the “Default PHP Server” (should already be set to localhost), and then created a new PHP Executable option by clicking on the PHP Executables link next to the PHP Executable pull down menu.

In the PHP Executables dialog, I Clicked Add, filled in the name (PHP with XDebug), and entered the path to the PHP executable - on my system this is /usr/bin/php but if you don’t know, then in a terminal, run

which php

to find out where the php command is run from. I also entered the location of php.ini - again, on my system, this is /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini - and selected XDebug as the PHP debugger:

Clicked OK, then went back to the PHP -> Debug preferences screen, and selected the PHP Executable just created in the PHP Executable pull down. Finally, in the Debug -> Workbench Options option in the left, I selected “Never” for the “allow multiple debug sessions” option, since Xdebug does not support them.

Finally, I needed to set the Default Web Browser in Eclipse, to that when I debug a script, the output is sent to Firefox. Again in Preferences, I navigated to General -> Web Browser, and clicked “New”. It’s pretty straight forward stuff - entering a name and location - Firefox, and /usr/bin/firefox. Again, if you don’t know the location of the firefox binary, in a terminal run:

which firefox

With this done, and the preferences saved, I can now debug my scripts using Xdebug!

References:

http://www.xdebug.org/docs/install
http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/documents/XDebugGuide.pdf
http://devzone.zend.com/article/2803-Introducing-xdebug

written by Hodge \\ tags: Eclipse, PDT, Xdebug

NOTE, 04/08/08: This tutorial covers Eclipse Europa. If you would like to install the latest version of Eclipse 3.4 Ganymede, with PDT and SQL Explorer, take a look at my latest Tutorial: “64 Bit Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede) IDE with PDT and SQL Explorer - Full PHP/MySQL Web Application IDE“.

I had tried once before to install the x64 (64 Bit) version of Eclipse IDE, about 8 months ago, but found it to be somewhat buggy and unstable. In the interim, I’ve been using the 32 Bit version of Eclipse PDT for my development stuff. Earlier this year (21/02/08) a new version of Eclipse 64 Bit was released, so I gave it a go today. So far, so good!

Unfortunately, there’s no 64 Bit PDT all-in-one, but I managed to install a 64 Bit equivalent by cobbling together the relevant packages available by using the Eclipse Update Manager system, after initially installing the latest version of Eclipse Classic 3.3.2 64 Bit.

I wanted to keep everything (or as much as possible) 64 Bit, so I also download and installed the 64 Bit JRE, which can be downloaded here (or use the direct link to the bin file). The method for installing the 64 Bit JRE is the same as the 32 Bit version - after the file downloaded to my desktop, I opened up a new Terminal Window (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal), traversed to the directory I wanted to install it into, moved the file, made it executable, and ran it to install:

cd /usr/java
sudo mkdir 64
cd 64
sudo mv ~/Desktop/jdk-6u5-linux-x64.bin /usr/java/64/
sudo chmod a+x jdk-6u5-linux-x64.bin
sudo ./jdk-6u5-linux-x64.bin

If the “java” directory doesn’t exist, it needs to be created first:

sudo mkdir /usr/java

listing the directory

ls

should return

jre1.6.0_05

which is the directory containing the necessary Java binaries.

As with my previous 32 Bit installation, I wanted Eclipse to be installed in the /opt directory:

cd /opt
sudo mv ~/Desktop/eclipse-SDK-3.3.2-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz /opt
sudo tar -zxvf eclipse-SDK-3.3.2-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

then rename the eclipse directory:

sudo mv eclipse eclipse64

I also needed to get the newly installed Eclipse to run with the newly installed JRE - by default, the eclipse executable in the directory will try and detect Java and use whatever it finds, so I created a shell script:

cd eclipse64
sudo gksu gedit eclipse.sh

containing the following:

#!/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/java/64/jre1.6.0_05/bin:$PATH
/opt/eclipse64/eclipse

Now instead of running the eclipse executable, I run eclipse.sh (make sure it’s executable)

sudo chmod 755 eclipse.sh

before running

/opt/eclipse64/eclipse.sh

PDT and WTP Plugins

The first time I ran the new 64 Bit version, everything went well - it was fast, and seemed stable, so I went ahead and started installing all the additional plugins I needed (and still need…). Goto Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install, and select “Search for new features to install”.Click on “New Remote Site” for each of the following:

• Name: PDT, URL: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/updates/
• Name: WTP, URL: http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/updates/
• Name: GEF, URL: http://www.eclipse.org/gef/updates/
• Name: EMF, IRL: http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/updates/

Actually, there are only a couple of components required from the GEF (Graphical Editing Framework) and EMF (Eclipse Modeling Framework) packages to satisfy dependencies - WTP (Web Tools Platform) requires a package from GEF, and GEF from EMF…

After adding these, click on Finish - the Update Manager will then query any mirrors for the latest versions of the plugins. Once it has finished, a dialog appears, where it is possible to select the plugins to download and install. First, I selected PDT - the Update Manager then informed me that PDT requires files from WTP, so I tried clicking the “Select Requires” button, hoping that it would sort out the dependencies on my behalf. Unfortunately, nothing happened… So, I selected WTP manually, then expanded GEF -> Eclipse SDK R3.3.1 and Selected Graphical Editing Framework 3.3.1v20070814, then expanded EMF -> EMF SDK 2.3.2 and selected Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) - org.eclipse.emf.ecore 2.3.2v200802051830… I could then click “Select Required” to get the last few residual required dependencies… Phew…

Actualy, it still bugged me for dependencies for Java Persistence API contained in WTP, but by that stage I really couldn’t be arsed going through the process of adding more stuff to the Update Manager and potentially having to search for further dependencies, so I just deselected the three Java Persistence API files contained in WTP.

OK, with the dependencies sorted, I clicked Next, accepted the agreements, finished, and went to make, and drink a brew (that’s Tea) while the Update Manager downloaded and installed the requested stuff.

MySQL: SQL Explorer Plugin

Once everything had downloaded and installed, I restarted Eclipse. Everything looked good! Great, in fact. But I also wanted to install a few more plugins, including the MySQL SQL Explorer Plugin - which additionally requires, and depends on Eclipse DTP (Data Tools Project). Eclipse DTP has to be downloaded and installed manually, since there is no automated Update Site. So, I downloaded dtp_1.5.2_022008.zip to my Desktop, and set about extracting and installing the files:

cd ~/Desktop
mkdir DTP
mv dtp_1.5.2_022008.zip DTP
cd DTP
unzip dtp_1.5.2_022008.zip
cd eclipse
sudo cp -R features plugins /opt/eclipse64

If Eclipse is open, restart it. With the DTP installed, I could set about installing the SQL Explorer Plugin. The instructions for installing and configuring the SQL Explorer Plugin can be found in my previous article - Eclipse PDT and MySQL - SQL Explorer Plugin, since I don’t want to regurgitate information, just follow the link if you need to install it, and come back when it’s done.

Note: Actually, now I had the DTP installed, I could download and install the additional Java Persistence API in WTP! Same method: Update Manager, select WTP etcetera, etcetera…

ATF: AJAX Framework Toolkit

Once the SQL Explorer Plugin was installed, I had one final plugin - ATF (the AJAX Toolkit Framework). This can be downloaded as a Site Archive, and the zip file added to Eclipse’s Update Manager. Once downloaded, I opened the Update Manager in Eclipse (Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install), and clicked on “New Archived Site”, to add a new locally archived site, calling it ATF, and pointing it to the freshly downloaded atf-incubation-SiteArchive-0.2.3M4-v200709141050.zip file. I discovered, however, that the site.xml file contained within the zipped site archive is somewhat out of date and the pointers within are directed to the wrong download locations, so I had to manually locate the additional dependent plugins - Mozilla XULRunner, and Mozilla JS. They can both be added as New Remote Sites to the Update Manager, by clicking on the “New Remote Site” button, and adding the following information:

• Name: Mozilla JS, URL: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/js/eclipse/
• Name: XULRunner, URL: http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/xulrunner/releases/1.8.1.3/contrib/eclipse/

The previously used EMF plugin is also required to satisfy a couple of dependencies, so I selected the ATF, Mozilla JS, XULRunner, and EMF plugins from the list, and clicked Finish. Once the “updates” were found, I selected XULRunner, Mozilla JS, ATF (I deselected the ATF -> Mozilla JS component though, since an updated version was to be downloaded and installed from the Mozilla Server), and also selected the required EMF components. Click through Next etc. to download and install. Once completed, I restarted Eclipse.

In the Window -> Preferences menu by the way, AJAX toolkits such as Script.aculo.us can be added to the ATF module.

Et Voila! I now have a working Eclipse 64 Bit version up and running! Finally!

Oh, if you want a desktop icon, just create a file on your Desktop called Eclipse.desktop,

cd ~/Desktop
gedit Eclipse.desktop

and add the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=;
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=/opt/eclipse32/eclipse.sh
Hidden=false
Icon=/opt/eclipse64/icon.xpm
Icon[en_US]=/opt/eclipse64/icon.xpm
Name=Eclipse
Name[en_US]=Eclipse
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Version=1.0

written by Hodge \\ tags: ATF, Eclipse, Eclipse 64 Bit, MySQL, PDT, SQL Explorer Plugin, WST, WTP

I’ve been using Eclipse PDT for some time now, and since PHP programming invariably involves connecting to a database at some point or another, I wanted to be able to access my MySQL databases from within the Eclipse IDE - even if only to quickly debug SQL statements. I generally use a combination of a locally installed phpMyAdmin, MySQL Administrator, MySQL Query Browser, and now the Eclipse SQL Explorer Plugin, which give me all the functionality I need for Web Application development.

phpMyAdmin, MySQL Administrator and MySQL Query Browser can be installed as follows, by the way:

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin mysql-admin mysql-query-browser

Installing Eclipse SQL Explorer was pretty straight forward - I simply downloaded the archive package from Sourceforge, saved it to a directory in on my desktop (there is also a standalone client available, so be sure to download “Eclipse SQL Explorer [RCP/Plugin]” if you’re setting it up as an Eclipse plugin - here’s a direct link to the latest plugin file), and extracted the files:

cd ~/Desktop/sqlexplorer
unzip sqlexplorer_plugin-3.5.0.RC5.zip


This created two directories (features and plugins) along with two text files. To install the plugin, I just copied the two directories to my Eclipse root installation directory (see my previous post “Eclipse PDT IDE for PHP MySQL 32 Bit install on 64 Bit Ubuntu“), which is /opt/eclipse32

cp -R features plugins /opt/eclipse32/

Notice there was no need to use the sudo command before copying, since my user owns the eclipse32 folder.

Configuring SQL Explorer

Once installed, I also had to do some additional setup before I could configure SQL Explorer to connect to my local MySQL databases via Eclipse - namely, download and install the Java Connector for MySQL (MySQL JDBC Driver), to enable JDBC connections. The latest driver (5.1 at the time of writing) tar.gz file can be downloaded from the MySQL site here.

Once downloaded, I just extracted the files, and entered the new directory:

cd ~/Desktop/mysqljdbc
tar -zxvf mysql-connector-java-5.1.6.tar.gz
cd mysql-connector-java-5.1.6

The important file here (along with the documentation, of course) is the mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar file, which is the driver itself. I guess this could be placed anywhere, since we just need to point the SQL Explorer plugin to it when setting it up in Eclipse, but for convenience and tidiness, I moved it to the /usr/share/mysql directory:

sudo cp mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar /usr/share/mysql

With the JDBC driver installed, I could set up the Eclipse SQL Explorer plugin. In Eclipse, I went to Window->Preferences and expanded the new SQL Explorer section, highlighting “JDBC Drivers”, then double clicking on “MySQL Driver” to open the MySQL setup dialog:

In the MySQL Driver setup, I had to point the plugin to the MySQL JDBC Driver, by clicking on the “Extra Class Path” tab, and then clicking “Add” to point it to /usr/share/mysql/mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar. Once added, clicking on “List Drivers” will bring up the list of available drivers in the “Driver Class Name” pull down menu. Only one is listed, and it just so happens to be the one we need - com.mysql.jdbc.Driver:

Click OK, and the driver is set up! I also clicked the “Set Default” button, since MySQL is currently the only database I connect to. With the Driver set up, I could then set up a connection to my database system. If the “Connections” view is not already available, it has to be selected via the Window->Show View->Other menu, and clicking on the “Connections” view within the “SQL Explorer” folder in this dialog.

With the Connections View available, I could set up the new connection profile, by right clicking in the view and selecting “New Connection Profile”, which opens up a new dialog, in which the new connection data is input:

It was a pretty simple process to create the connection - I just needed to replace the relevant parameters in the JDBC connections string with my connection details, so

jdbc:mysql://<hostname>[<:3306:>]/<dbname>

became

jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mydatabase

Entered the DB username and password, gave the connection a name, selected the newly created MySQL Driver, and clicked OK to save the connection. Double clicking the connection name in the Connections View connects to the DB and brings up an SQL window form which Queries may be run. By default, the results are displayed in a small view at the bottom of the main Eclipse IDE window - although, this can be dragged and placed anywhere. There are also several other views available via the Window->Show View->Other menu within the SQL Explorer section to peruse.

The Eclipse SQL Explorer homepage has extensive documentation available, including a cool section on extending the plugin. Maybe I should learn Java too?

That’s all Folks.

written by Hodge \\ tags: Eclipse, MySQL, PDT, plugin, SQL Explorer