Workflow setup

What problems working with your setup have you faced? It doesn't look unusual

My problem is how to set this up.

Example: I am writing a new piece of code and I'd like to test it. Then I see a nice Run>Debug feature. But I can't use it as I can't run the raw src code. At least not with the current setup. So then the debug feature itself can't work as should run Gulp, then understand which file to debug from the dist folder and then debug it.

So I am looking for a manual or a demos how other people set this up in these kind of cases to get maximum use out of PHPstorm. One of my problems is that I know PHP but never learned to write modern coding styles and working with frameworks. 

The workflow I imagine right now is:

Window 1

1. Create a project in PHPstorm of my whole project folder
2. Exclude the dist folder
3. Setup the deploy to my local webserver
4. Do some coding
5. Run the Gulp task
6. Upload my dist folder

Window 2

1. Open a second project in PHP storm of my local webserver folder
2. Setup debugging in here
3. Do some debugging of the uploaded code
4. If problem found go back to window 1 to task 4.

The only sensible solution right now for me looks like to modify my code and Gulp setup so I can run the src code directly. But I'd rather not for several good reasons.

>I am writing a new piece of code and I'd like to test it. Then I see a nice Run>Debug feature. But I can't use it as I can't run the raw src code.

If you have sourcemaps generated when compiling and minifying your code, you can add breakpoints to your source files and then debug the generated stuff, the debugger should be able to map your source files to the generated ones

Thanks for the input.

I must say this is so complex to setup. Damn! After a day of trail and error I have it pretty much running. Now if I run or debug a generated file then the source file automatically opens and breakpoints are recognised. So that's a win!

Problems found and hopefully fixed:

• No sourcemappings active.
• Gulp file setup cleans all files including composer setup. Now deleting of composer files and vendor directory is skipped
• Server option: Use path mappings where OFF 
• The path mappings of the directory setup was wrong
• Firewall blocks localhost/ but not 127.0.0.1/
• Apparently whole XAMPP Apache doesn't need to run to run and debug files/the app

Outstanding problems/questions:

Right now I debug my files in the dist folder. Which gives the URL: http://localhost:63342/Projectname/dist/index.php. 
Is there anyway I can get this to http://localhost/index.php or http://localhost:63342/index.php ?

>Is there anyway I can get this to http://localhost/index.php or http://localhost:63342/index.php ?

No, the built-in web server always serves files from http://localhost:63342/<project name>, there is no way to alter its doc root

Found a way to do this:

This cool guy gave great input with his Youtube movie: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/deploying-applications.html
Together with https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46798103/phpstorm-jetbrains-how-to-automatically-upload-a-gulp-sass-generated-css-file 

So if I run my Gulp task now PHPstorm automatically uploads the files from the dist directory to the webserver. And there I can run and debug my code just by opening my website via https://localhost/ and adding breakpoints to my original code.

So again a few steps forward. Seems we are getting there.

Now also fixed the https setup of my webserver by migrating my whole website to 127.0.0.1

This means:

1. Settings>Build, Extention, Deployment > Deployment > Webservice URL: http://127.0.0.1 (I guess this could also be https
2. Settings>Languages & Frameworks>PHP>Servers > Select your server > Host: 127.0.0.1 (watch that the mapping to the webserver directory is not lost from your src directory)
3. Added an .htaccess for my local server to redirect all calls to the index.php. See code below.

As far as I can see pretty much all works now. So now I can start coding and especially debugging :-) 
Thanks Elena for the help!

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?path=$1 [NC,L,QSA]

Great, thanks for update!