Question

I am trying to build a better var_dump() (please don’t suggest alternatives; there is a reason – for me – why I am doing so).

Any hints as to how to display the various resource types?

Answer 1

You can get the type of the resource using get_resource_type, which will give you something like “domxml document”. Beyond that it entirely depends on the kind of resource. Every resource is different, there’s no standard way to “output” a resource. You could output gd resources using the image functions, you could print the structure of a DOMXML resource by looping through it, you could… dump the database for mysql resources…? Print a list of files for an FTP resource…?

Either you handle each resource individually with custom code, or you just take its type and leave it at that.