Much of the code presented in this chapter can go just about anywhere in a concrete5 application. Since we are just going to be trying out simple code snippets, it makes sense to experiment with this code in a sandbox area. There are a few places in concrete5 that make sense for this, but we will be using /config/site_post.php to test out our code.

It is a good idea to erase any experimental and arbitrary code from site_post.php after each recipe, so that your site is ready for the next exercise.

Also, we will need to dump the contents of variables from time to time. Each PHP developer has his or her own way of doing this, but in this chapter we will be using a custom debug function. You may recognize this function from Chapter 1, Pages and Page Types. We will continue using it here, as it makes the output easy to read and saves some time while developing.

Place the following PHP function at the top of /config/site_post.php:

function my_debug($var) {
   echo '<pre>';
   print_r($var);
   echo '</pre>';
   exit;
}

Now we can dump variable contents by calling my_debug($variableName) and see a nicely formatted output of the contents of the variable. Feel free to use print_r or var_dump as an alternative.

Placing debug code in site_post.php is great for experimentation and trying out the concrete5 API, but it will disrupt the regular operation of a concrete5 website. It is recommended that all of the recipes in this chapter be performed on a testing copy of concrete5.