You can test PHPlot with any of the examples in Chapter 5, PHPlot Examples, or by entering this minimal script into a file called (for example) plottest.php.

<?php
require 'phplot.php';
$data = array(array('', 10), array('', 1));
$plot = new PHPlot();
$plot->SetDataValues($data);
$plot->SetTitle('First Test Plot');
$plot->DrawGraph();

Access this script through your browser, and you should see a very simple plot. Note: Since PHPlot returns image data, not text, you will generally not see error messages in the output. If a script using PHPlot has a syntax error, or calls an undefined function, you will get a blank page returned, and you will probably have to check the web server error log for the reason. You might find that debugging your PHPlot applications is easier using the PHP CLI (command line interface), as described at the start of Chapter 5, PHPlot Examples.

If you are installing PHPlot for use by some web application (rather than to develop your own applications), proceed with that application's setup instructions. If you want to develop your own applications using PHPlot, you can start by looking at some of the examples in Chapter 5, PHPlot Examples, or go right to the introductory material in Chapter 2, Getting Started with PHPlot. Experienced programmers may want to skip right to Chapter 3, PHPlot Concepts to learn about PHPlot concepts and features in depth.