Debug Bar Tracer

Many times when creating a custom theme or plugin there is need to view a piece of data you are working with which can be unweidly and not to mention ugly.
This plugin adds a new tab to the Debug Bar plugin that allows you to “trace” the data to a window and displays not only the data, but where the call came from and optionally a description.

Plus, it’s green like the Matrix.

About debug_trace

The method debug_trace() takes one parameter that can be of any data type.
If you want to pass a descriptor for the debug_trace(), pass an array with the following indices:

• ‘key’ => The descriptor
• ‘data’ => What you want to trace – can be any data type.

Behind the scenes, each trace is actually an array containing the location of the call, the data and optionally a custom key.
If the parameter passed to debug_trace() is an array that has a key of ‘key’ or ‘data’, then the method overrides the defaults with it.
Otherwise, the method assumes you want to trace the passed parameter as the ‘data’.

1. Upload plugin-name.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Be sure you have Debug Bar installed and active

I don’t see anything in the Debug Bar window

The Tracer tab only appears where there are items to trace.

How do I trace an item?

Place a call to debug_trace( $param ) into your theme or plugin.

1.0

• First Release