Debugging PHP in Eclipse with XDebug

I got the following error message when I tried to debug a PHP project in Eclipse.

"Unexpected termination of script. Debugging ended."

By looking into the log of XDebug, I found out that this error is actually a timeout of XDebug trying to connect back to the debugging client (in my case, Eclipse). I checked the firewall policy in my system (Windows 7) and it turned out that the inbound connections to Eclipse were all blocked by rule. After I allowed them, this problem was solved.

Installation of XDebug and PDT

Sever side

1. Install XAMPP

2. Download the latest XDebug PHP debugger from http://www.xdebug.org/download.php (XAMPP requires VC 6 thread-safe version) and overwrite xampp\php\ext\php_xdebug.dll.

3. Modify php.ini by uncommenting and setting the following options in XDebug section:

zend_extension = ;

xdebug.remote_enable = 1;

Client side

1. Install PDT following the instructions on http://wiki.eclipse.org/PDT/Installation

2. Configure options related to PHP debugging. Reference can be found on http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/documents/XDebugGuideForPDT2.0.pdf