PHP - Serverside console output

Question

i'm using PHP as a server backend, to create API, and hence it doesn't console log to browser.

However I'm finding it very hard to debug without using console, and I have to use error_log(json_encode($variable)) all the time to write to error log to see what is being returned/received.

Is there anyway I can 'monitor' the API, and use console.log or similar to write to somewhere, where I can view my output live?

Thanks @Chris, for answering my need. So I'm using the following codes to do a simple print to text file and use tail to see the live output. Works brilliantly.

function mylog($data) {
$myFile = "/home/user/html/log.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a') or die("can't open file");
fwrite($fh, json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));
fclose($fh);
}

you can use xdebug or log error in file or you can use stackify.com/13-ways-to-tail-a-log-file-on-windows-unix to view errors in error_log live — Davit Huroyan
– Davit Huroyan, Commented Aug 1, 2018 at 11:04
xdebug does it only work on web application? i’m using react native to call php so php is entirely backend. — Someone Special
– Someone Special, Commented Aug 1, 2018 at 11:07
Sorry i may not know the right terms to use. My react native application just call the API for e.g. example.com/get/listing/ then it will return something. However during debugging for the API sometimes i want to know the $_GET or $_POST values received.. so I use error_log now — Someone Special
– Someone Special, Commented Aug 1, 2018 at 11:26

Chris · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-01 11:03:04Z

4

My advice would be to write to a log file within your PHP:

$myFile = "log.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a') or die("can't open file");
fwrite($fh, "write this to my file\n");
fclose($fh);

If you have command line access then you can run this command to view the contents of the file live:

tail -f log.txt

This will then show anything written to the file immediately.

answered Aug 1, 2018 at 11:03

Chris

4,75813 gold badges56 silver badges98 bronze badges

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

3 Comments

Someone Special Over a year ago

can you advise how do I add a "pretty" var_dump if i were to write to text file? Because there's many Json returns

CodiMech25 Over a year ago

@SomeoneSpecial You could use print_r($something, true);, this will pretty-print the variable and return it as a string.

Someone Special Over a year ago

thank u, i added fwrite($fh, json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT)); to the code and now it's working beautifully. Not perfect for debugging but enough for me. thanks!!!

Exterminator · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-01 11:18:25Z

-1

This might help.

ini_set('display_errors', 1);

as this will show errors when you call an API. You can check the errors by clicking on the API call made.

answered Aug 1, 2018 at 11:18

Exterminator

1,2467 silver badges14 bronze badges

1 Comment

CodiMech25 Over a year ago

This will only show error and warning notifications, but in his question was mentioned a variable dump.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP - Serverside console output

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related