Shortened value in Netbeans PHP debugger

Question

I'm trying to debug a WordPress plugin that dynamically creates a big SQL query. The plugin itself does not assemble the whole query, but it hooks the posts_clauses action and it sends the components of the query to WP. Then the WP query.php file assembles them in a single string variable. I set a breakpoint into the plugin code, then I step through the calls into query.php and reach the point where WP builds the SQL string. I'd like to copy this string, but it's so long that Netbeans shows ellipsis and the word "shortened" before the string is completely shown.

I'm using NB 8.2 on Linux, PHP 5 and xdebug. In NB Options|PHP|Debugger tab I've already entered 16384 for the "Maximum data length" and I've already dropped the following line into the xdebug configuration file:

xdebug.var_display_max_data=16384

I've already restarted Netbeans and Apache, but the problem persists. The part of the SQL string shown is exactly 2000 characters long.

I know I could hook posts_pre_query WP action, and log the query, but hell, I'm debugging, I don't want to add throw away code that forces me to change the sources after they have been debugged and tested...

How do I make NB show PHP string values longer than 2000 characters in the debugger?

Answer 1

After digging through NB source code I've found solution. nb.php.debugger.full.values property controls whether or not values are truncated. To disable variable truncation edit your netbeans.conf file and add -J-Dnb.php.debugger.full.values=true to the end of netbeans_default_options option:

netbeans_default_options="-J-client -J-Xss2m -J-Xms32m -J-Dapple.laf.useScreenMenuBar=true -J-Dapple.awt.graphics.UseQuartz=true -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -J-Dsun.java2d.dpiaware=true -J-Dsun.zip.disableMemoryMapping=true -J-Dnb.php.debugger.full.values=true"

Restart the IDE afterwards.

I didn't need to change NB settings through configuration before so this might not be the best way to do it.