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Javascript debugging is done in the browser using the built-in developer tools. People typically use chrome. The exception would be if you have a node application or javascript front end application built on vue or react etc. but in that case you are going to have the front end code separate from the back end code, and be implementing a REST api or something similar on your backend, which is basically what you would want to do for any ajax calls. If you have lots of mixed PHP/HTML scripts you can still debug those with the PHP debugger, but it's really not a great way to develop clean maintainable code. Most pro developers use PHPStorm. It's not free obviously, but it's the premier solution. It has so many options it can actually be pretty daunting, but it also provides the best navigation through a complicated code base of any IDE. As for free options, I have also used phpeclipse, which is built on top of eclipse. It's not terrible, as Zend for a time had a commercial product based on it, but Zend no longer exists as a company. Lately I'm using Visual Studio Code, but I haven't made a lot of efforts to get it setup for PHP. It's really where a lot of the web development community has migrated, and the support and velocity of enhancements is very high.

In my experience, VSCode is not at all buggy; I've used PHPStorm and - personally - didn't like the project setup aspect of things. That having been said, I have to say that setting up a debugger is much easier with PHPStorm than VSCode, and all of my co-workers use PHPStorm and love it. So honestly, check out some plugins, give both a fair shake, and use what helps you get the work done. As for the code using ajax on page load, it kinda depends. Is this a page that you're gathering analytics or is it reliant on search engine rankings? If so, you're probably going to want to have content available when the page loads. If it's part of an SPA after the user has logged in, then you can do a fetch on page load. Or you can server-side render the initial page content, then use ajax or fetch to update and/or change that data depending on the user action.

My name is Joshua, am so glad to have found this site. I am using backend PHP for an ecommerce project I am working on to gain experience to help land a job. I really like PHP and the JavaScript that goes with it. Nice to be here, if there is anything I can do for you feel free to contact me.