216 lines
8.8 KiB
Text
216 lines
8.8 KiB
Text
This is the README file for PHPlot
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Last updated for PHPlot-6.2.0 on 2015-11-03
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The project web site is http://sourceforge.net/projects/phplot/
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The project home page is http://phplot.sourceforge.net/
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OVERVIEW:
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PHPlot is a PHP class for creating scientific and business charts.
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The release documentation contains only summary information. For more
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complete information, download the PHPlot Reference Manual from the
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Sourceforge project web site. You can also view the manual online at
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http://phplot.sourceforge.net
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For information about changes in this release, including any possible
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incompatibilities, see the NEWS.txt file.
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CONTENTS:
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COPYING . . . . . . . . . . . . LGPL 2.1 License file
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ChangeLog . . . . . . . . . . . Lists changes to the sources
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NEWS.txt . . . . . . . . . . . . Highlights changes in releases
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NEWS_*.txt . . . . . . . . . . . Older NEWS files
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README.txt . . . . . . . . . . This file
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contrib . . . . . . . . . . . . "Contributed" directory, add-ons
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phplot.php . . . . . . . . . . The main PHPlot source file
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rgb.inc.php . . . . . . . . . . Optional extended color table
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REQUIREMENTS:
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You need a recent version of PHP, and you are advised to use the latest
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stable release. This version of PHPlot was tested with PHP-5.6.15,
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PHP-5.5.30, PHP-5.4.45, and also with the pre-release PHP-7.0.0RC6.
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(Windows testing was limited to PHP-5.4.x.)
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Note: At the time of this release, PHP-5.4.x just entered end-of-life with
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no expected further support from the PHP Group. This version of PHPlot
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still works with PHP-5.4.x, but future versions will probably not be
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tested with or support PHP-5.4.x.
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At the time of this release, PHP-7 has not yet been released. This
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version of PHPlot has been tested with a pre-release version of PHP-7,
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and contains fixes that are required for PHP-7.
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You need the GD extension to PHP either built in to PHP or loaded as a
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module. Refer to the PHP documentation for more information - see the
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Image Functions chapter in the PHP Manual. We test PHPlot mostly with the
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PHP-supported, bundled GD library.
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If you want to display PHPlot charts on a web site, you need a PHP-enabled
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web server. You can also use the PHP CLI interface without a web server.
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PHPlot supports TrueType fonts, but does not include any TrueType font files.
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If you want to use TrueType fonts on your plots, you need to have TrueType
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support in GD, and some TrueType font files. (Your operating system most
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likely includes TrueType fonts.) By default, PHPlot uses a simple font which
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is built in to the GD library.
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INSTALLATION:
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Unpack the distribution. (If you are reading this file, you have probably
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already done that.)
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Installation of PHPlot simply involves copying two script files somewhere
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your PHP application scripts will be able to find them. The scripts are:
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phplot.php - The main script file
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rgb.inc.php - Optional large color table
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Make sure the permissions on these files allow the web server to read them.
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The ideal place is a directory outside your web server document area,
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and on your PHP include path. You can add to the include path in the PHP
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configuration file; consult the PHP manual for details.
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UPGRADING:
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To upgrade PHPlot, follow the same instructions as for installing. There
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may be changes between releases which can alter the appearance of your plots.
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Please check the top section in NEWS.txt for details.
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KNOWN ISSUES:
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Here are some of the problems we know about in PHPlot. See the bug tracker
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on the PHPlot project web site for more information.
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#173 Area fill plots with data borders and overlapping areas
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New in release 6.2.0 are data borders for area and squaredarea plot types.
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With multiple data sets, if the areas overlap, the borders are drawn without
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regard to the overlap, and don't correspond to the visible areas.
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#171 Dashed patters aren't continuing
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PHPlot line styles are not being drawn properly when the dashed pattern
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is long relative to the data point spacing.
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#146 (was: 3142124) Clip plot elements to plot area
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Plot elements are not currently clipped to the plot area, and may extend
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beyond. PHP does not currently support the GD clipping control.
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#93 (was: 1605558) Wide/Custom dashed lines don't work well
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There is a question whether this is a PHP/GD issue, or behaving as
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expected.
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PHP Issues:
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PHP has many build-time and configuration options, and these can affect
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the operation of PHPlot (as well as any other application or library). Here
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are some known issues:
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+ If PHP is built with Thread Safety on (ZTS), the GD extension is
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unable to find TrueType fonts unless the full path is given. (This might
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be a PHP bug.) The text in the PHPlot Reference Manual section
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"TrueType Font Selection" concerning finding fonts without a path does not
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work on these systems. This has been found to affect the version of PHP
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distributed with Slackware, but not Ubuntu. It affects the thread-safe PHP
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Windows release, but not the non-thread-safe (NTS) Windows release.
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+ Slackware Linux used to include a PHP built with --enable-gd-jis-conv
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(JIS-mapped Japanese font support). This prevented the usual UTF-8 encoding
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of characters from working in TrueType Font (TTF) text strings. This does
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not affect recent Slackware, though (14.0 and up).
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+ The Ubuntu Linux PHP GD package (php5-gd) was built to use the external
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shared GD library, not the one bundled with PHP. This can result in small
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differences in images, and some unsupported features (such as advanced
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truecolor image operations). Also, although this Ubuntu GD library was
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built with fontconfig support, PHP does not use it, so you still need to
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specify TrueType fonts with their actual file names. These also affect
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Ubuntu-derived distributions such as Linux Mint.
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+ Some PHP installations may have a memory limit set too low to support
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large images, especially truecolor images.
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+ The default TrueType font can be changed by external factors. If you
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enable TrueType fonts, but don't select a font name, PHPlot can find a
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default TrueType font on many systems, including Windows. However, the
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selected font can change if you install or remove software. For example, on
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Windows, PHPlot may select the Arial font. But then, if you install
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LibreOffice, the default font will change to Liberation Sans. This will
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change plot appearance. This happens because LibreOffice installs the
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Liberation font family in the Windows fonts directory, and the Liberation
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Sans font precedes Arial in PHPlot's list of candidate default fonts.
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If you think you found a problem with PHPlot, or want to ask questions or
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provide feedback, please use the Help and Discussion forum at
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http://sourceforge.net/projects/phplot/
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If you are sure you have found a bug, you can report it on the Bug tracker
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at the same web site. There is also a Features Request tracker.
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TESTING:
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You can test your installation by creating the following two files somewhere
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in your web document area. First, the HTML file:
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------------ simpleplot.html ----------------------------
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Hello, PHPlot!</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>PHPlot Test</h1>
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<img src="../../phplot/simpleplot.php">
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</body>
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</html>
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---------------------------------------------------------
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Second, in the same directory, the image file producing PHP script file.
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Depending on where you installed phplot.php, you may need to specify a path
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in the 'require' line below.
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------------ simpleplot.php -----------------------------
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<?php
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require 'phplot.php';
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$plot = new PHPlot();
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$data = array(array('', 0, 0), array('', 1, 9));
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$plot->SetDataValues($data);
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$plot->SetDataType('data-data');
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$plot->DrawGraph();
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---------------------------------------------------------
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Access the URL to 'simpleplot.html' in your web browser. If you see a
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simple graph, you have successfully installed PHPlot. If you see no
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graph, check your web server error log for more information.
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COPYRIGHT and LICENSE:
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PHPlot is Copyright (C) 1998-2015 Afan Ottenheimer
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This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
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modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
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License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
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version 2.1 of the License.
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This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
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Lesser General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
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License along with this software; if not, write to the Free Software
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Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
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Notice: Despite the presence of the letters "PHP" in the name of
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PHPlot, it should be apparent that this software is not a product
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of the PHP Group, is not derived from PHP, and the PHP Group does
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endorse and is not responsible for this product.
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