NYCPHP Meetup

[lists at nopersonal.info]

Kristina D. H. Anderson wrote:
> Hi, sorry if this was covered anywhere previously in this thread, but 
> I've found it useful, in addition to enabling the full error reporting 
> that's built into PHP, to also add customized error_log calls anywhere 
> where you have such things as database inserts/updates, web service 
> request/response or other behind-the-scenes text generation or 
> processing, or any other areas of the application which you feel are 
> extremely performance intensive, bug-prone or hard to monitor using 
> more generic error messages.
> 
> Set it up so that you can toggle this function on/off in one place 
> before turnover to production, so that you can leave in all your calls 
> to error_log for future use.
> 
> Your error_log file on the server will quickly grow to enormous 
> proportions, but since it's only a test server, it won't be a worry!  
> By doing this you can build a history of the application's behavior and 
> performance and verify that everything is exactly as it should be.
> 
> Right now I'm working with the Paypal IPN code and I'm finding that 
> it's quite a creative experience to figure out what, in any particular 
> instance, is the highest level of valuable information you can wreak 
> out of some code by dint of the old error_log function...

Hi, Kristina. Thanks for chiming in with additional great advice!

I need to organize the info everyone has provided this week so that I
can form a game plan going forward. I have no doubt all these tips will
prove invaluable in improving my productivity.

Bev