Debug Environment for DT/Editor/PHP

Howdy,

I'm curious, what is the most effective way to debug a DataTable, Editor and PHP application? A bunch of console.log() statements with PHP print statements? Is there a specific IDE and client install of Apache (XAMPP?) combo that works well? Maybe some remote debugging build and IDE? Or do people have some other setup that works well in tracking not only the JS code on the frontend but also as the data transfers back and forth with the PHP libraries on the backend?

Thanks in advance for any help!
J W