euroblaze | OXID e-Commerce User Blog

Since the OXID VM is a good PHP developer tool, it would be great to have the xdebug enabled by default.  Until XDebug starts to comes pre-installed on the OXID VM, it can be installed on the VM’s in use, using:

apt-get install php5-dev

In your /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini, please insert either of these lines to load the xdebug.so shared object.

root@oxidvm:# find / -name 'xdebug.so' /usr/lib/php5/20090626+lfs/xdebug.so

zend_extension_ts=/usr/lib/php5/20090626+lfs/xdebug.so (for threaded use  of PHP) or
zend_extension=/usr/lib/php5/20090626+lfs/xdebug.so (non threaded use)

xdebug for OXID Virtual Machine

The newest OXID CE 4.5.2 has been updated on the OXID Virtual Machine 2.0 Repository.  You can update this on your VM using the “VM/Available OXID Versions Update” menu point on the Main Menu.

Here are the 3 steps involved with updating your VM.

If you should have any questions regarding the VM, you may post them on the mailing list, or drop a comment here below.

Python-scripters can have a lot of fun with the OXID Virtual Machine 2.0 since it comes pre-installed with the Python Interpreter.

Infact the Management Console for this VM has been written in Python, source code of which can be viewed on our public SVN.

We are all excited about releasing the OXID VM 2.0 in the next days, the successor to the existing VM.  We’ve added several new features to the VM 2.0, including a management-console for quick access to day to day functions that OXID-programmers use.  At the same time, we’ve moved to VirtualBox, from it’s previous incarnation on VMWare.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be blogging about individual features, so please watch this space for new stuff.  You can also follow us on Twitter with hashtag #OXID_VM.

System

This Virtual Machine is based on:

• Debian GNU/LINUX 6.0.2 (Squeeze)
• Kernel 2.6.32-5-686

Minimum Recommended Hardware

• Single or Dual Core processors of up to 4.x GHz
• 4 GB RAM
• 20 GB Disk (VM performs faster on SSD)

Download

The OXID VM 2.0 is available for download over HTTP.  Filesize 874 MB (courtesy of the cloud service Dropbox).

This version of the OXID Virtual Machine comes with it’s own Management Console.  The source-code for the MC can be viewed on our public SVN.

Virtual Machine Player – VirtualBox

Here’s where you can get the VirtualBox Player for running this virtual-machine in Windows, OS X, Linux and Solaris host-operating-systems.

Discuss

There are surely bugs and features-wishes which we might have overlooked.  We would love to have you participate in the development of this VM.  Please join us at the OXID e-Shop Virtual Machine mailing list and send us tons of feedback!

As a company that churns out a few hundred lines of OXID-related code every day, it is important for us to have access to the right development tools at hand. We already profit enormously from the Debian 5.0 Based OXID Virtual Machine.  When combined with the phpDesigner programming IDE, we are left with asking nothing much more!

Here are the top reasons, in order of importance to us, why we standardized on the phpDesigner IDE for all our OXID coding work.

1. Code Explorer feature, which lists all functions, classes, dependency-files, variables and any base classes associated with a PHP code file.
2. Go to Declaration feature, which looks up all the code-files in the tree and jumps directly to where a particular function or class has been defined.  After years of waiting this feature, which is all too familiar to Windows programmers in the Visual Studio IDE, has finally been made available to PHP coders.
3. FTP and SFTP file-browser, which when used in combination with the OXID Virtual Machine, works with no noticable latency
4. Color-coding, not only for PHP, HTML, CSS and Javascript code, but also for SMARTY template files.

Many other functions are listed on the software publisher, MP Software of Denmark’s, website.  The software comes at an affordable license price for individual developers as well as software companies.

We hence recommend the phpDesigner IDE to beginners as well as advanced OXID programmers.

Other IDEs that PHP Developers Love

• PHPStorm
• ZEND
• Eclipse
• and of course… VIM