wp-dumper

A WordPress dumper plugin like laravel. Simply use dd() for browser dump. Or use dump to get asynchronious debugging.

View project on GitHub

Basic Usage

Get started with WP Dumper’s core functionality for debugging WordPress applications.

🚀 Quick Start

⚙️ Configuration

Basic Configuration

Add these constants to your wp-config.php for optimal debugging:

// Enable WordPress debugging
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);

// Optional: Enable query debugging
define('SAVEQUERIES', true);

Basic Variable Dumping

// Dump any variable
$user = wp_get_current_user();
dump($user);

// Dump multiple variables
$posts = get_posts(['numberposts' => 5]);
$options = get_option('my_plugin_options');
dump($user, $posts, $options);

// Dump with labels
dump('Current user:', $user);
dump('Recent posts:', $posts);

Dump and Die

// Stop execution and dump
$data = some_complex_function();
dd($data); // This will stop execution here

// This line will never be reached
echo "This won't execute";

🎯 WordPress-Specific Quick Functions

WordPress Context

// Quick WordPress state overview
dump_wp();

// WordPress context and die
ddwp();

Performance Monitoring

// Quick performance check
perf(); // Shows execution time, memory, queries

// Environment info
env(); // WordPress version, PHP info, active plugins

Query Information

// Current query info
queries(); // Shows current WP_Query, SQL, query count

🔧 Profiler Usage

Basic Profiling

The profiler helps you identify performance bottlenecks by tracking execution time, memory usage, and database queries.

// Start profiling
start_wp_profiling();

// Your code to analyze
do_some_operations();

// Add checkpoints to track progress
wp_checkpoint('After database operations');

more_operations();

wp_checkpoint('After processing');

// Stop and view results
stop_wp_profiling();

What the Profiler Shows

When you call stop_wp_profiling(), you’ll see:

  1. Execution Summary
    • Total execution time
    • Memory usage and peak memory
    • Total database queries
  2. Checkpoints
    • Time between each checkpoint
    • Memory changes
    • Query count changes
  3. Top WordPress Hooks
    • Most frequently called hooks
    • Helps identify performance bottlenecks
  4. Query Analysis
    • Query types (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE)
    • Potential slow queries

Profiler Example Output

execution_summary: {
  total_time: "1.2345s"
  memory_used: "12.3 MB"
  peak_memory: "28.7 MB"
  total_queries: 23
}

checkpoints: [
  {
    label: "After database operations"
    elapsed_time: "0.0234s"
    memory_diff: "2.1 MB"
    queries_diff: 8
  },
  {
    label: "After processing"
    elapsed_time: "0.0156s"
    memory_diff: "1.2 MB"
    queries_diff: 3
  }
]

top_hooks: {
  "wp_head": 15
  "wp_enqueue_scripts": 8
  "init": 6
}

🎯 Common Usage Patterns

1. Debug Plugin Performance

// In your plugin's main file
add_action('plugins_loaded', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG && current_user_can('administrator')) {
        start_wp_profiling();
        wp_checkpoint('Plugins loaded');
    }
});

// In your plugin's init function
public function init() {
    wp_checkpoint('Plugin init start');
    
    // Your plugin initialization
    $this->setup_hooks();
    $this->load_dependencies();
    
    wp_checkpoint('Plugin init complete');
}

// At the end of page load
add_action('wp_footer', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG && current_user_can('administrator')) {
        wp_checkpoint('Footer reached');
        stop_wp_profiling();
    }
}, 999);

2. Debug Theme Performance

// In functions.php
add_action('after_setup_theme', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG) {
        start_wp_profiling();
        wp_checkpoint('Theme setup');
    }
});

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG) {
        wp_checkpoint('Scripts enqueued');
    }
    
    // Your script enqueuing
    wp_enqueue_script('theme-js', get_template_directory_uri() . '/js/main.js');
});

add_action('wp_footer', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG) {
        wp_checkpoint('Footer complete');
        stop_wp_profiling();
    }
}, 999);

3. Debug Specific Functions

function my_heavy_function() {
    start_wp_profiling();
    wp_checkpoint('Function start');
    
    // Heavy operation 1
    $data = fetch_external_data();
    wp_checkpoint('External data fetched');
    
    // Heavy operation 2
    $processed = process_data($data);
    wp_checkpoint('Data processed');
    
    // Heavy operation 3
    save_to_database($processed);
    wp_checkpoint('Data saved');
    
    stop_wp_profiling();
    
    return $processed;
}

4. Debug Page Load Performance

// Track entire page load
add_action('init', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG && isset($_GET['profile'])) {
        start_wp_profiling();
        wp_checkpoint('WordPress init');
    }
}, 1);

add_action('wp_loaded', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG && isset($_GET['profile'])) {
        wp_checkpoint('WordPress loaded');
    }
});

add_action('template_redirect', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG && isset($_GET['profile'])) {
        wp_checkpoint('Template redirect');
    }
});

add_action('wp_footer', function() {
    if (WP_DEBUG && isset($_GET['profile'])) {
        wp_checkpoint('Page complete');
        stop_wp_profiling();
    }
}, 999);

// Usage: Add ?profile=1 to any URL

🔍 Output Modes

Browser Display

By default, dumps appear in your browser with styled output.

Network Display (Dump Server)

When WP_DEBUG=true, regular dump() calls are sent to a dump server for network viewing:

  1. Start the dump server: 
    php vendor/bin/var-dump-server
  2. Use dump() in your code - output appears in the server

Note: dd() does NOT send to the network server - it only provides direct output.

REST API Support

For REST API endpoints, dd() returns clean JSON responses instead of HTML.

💡 Best Practices

1. Conditional Debugging

// Only debug for administrators
if (current_user_can('administrator')) {
    dump_wp();
}

// Only debug in development
if (WP_DEBUG) {
    start_wp_profiling();
}

// Only debug with URL parameter
if (isset($_GET['debug'])) {
    dump($debug_data);
}

2. Use Descriptive Labels

// Good
wp_checkpoint('After user authentication');
dump('User permissions:', $user_caps);

// Better than
wp_checkpoint('Step 1');
dump($user_caps);

3. Clean Up Production Code

// Wrap debugging in conditions
if (WP_DEBUG) {
    start_wp_profiling();
    // ... debugging code
    stop_wp_profiling();
}

🔗 Next Steps