A test app would be useful for 2 main reasons. The first one, as it says, is for testing purposes. The recent changes brought to OFC plugin were great but they were lacking some tests (functional tests and backward compatibility tests). So more tests are definitely necessary. The other reason which is almost more important is the need for working examples. The examples exist on Charlie’s blog and they are very helpful. As they exist why not gather them in an example app ? The examples will be yet more useful and clear.

So first, I worked directly on the app put by dfl in the test directory. But quickly I found it weird to have an application inside a plugin and using this plugin with the application inside etc. You get the kind of recursive situation (not as bad as it seems though!). So I proposed to Charlie to simply make a side test app. For now, the app is here in my repo on github but as it is more natural to put it close to the OFC plugin, Charlie will fork it and the “official” repo will be on his github repo probably here [EDIT: this is done].

[EDIT] If you also have your own OFC test app, and you want to contribute, have a look at this post explaining how to do it with GIT.

Taken from the README :
Both a testing and tutorial application for Rails Open Flash Chart Plugin.
Version 0.2.0
1) Install with:

git clone git://github.com/harryseldon/ofc_test_app.git    

EDIT PullMonkey’s version not up to date.

git clone git://github.com/pullmonkey/ofc_test_app.git    

2) Run your server:

script/server -p 3000   

3) Go to http://localhost:3000/test_it/all_graphs
You will see all the graphs, like here.

EDIT 3/9/2009 This app is running live here.

All your comments on how to test a Rails plugin are welcome.