Updated Heat Map Report

During my preparation for a visualization presentation at East Coast Oracle Users Group I realized I had an opportunity for a teaching moment on Levels of Abstraction. A few months back I published my PL/SQL code for an Archived Log Switch Heat Map.

• Try 1 was a grid of numbers - Useful but hard to navigate
  
• Try 2 was a grid of colors - Easy to navigate but no way to see absolute or max values
  
• Try 3 was a grid of numbers and colors. Lots of information but very busy!
  
• Try 4... A grid of colors and 1 number, the max number of logs in the time period to use as a reference point. Hopefully less is more in this case.
  

Below is my mock up of the visualization before I decided to go ahead and change the code.

And here is a link to updated code that will produce the Try 4 output below/right: 2012-10-24-LogHeatMap-v4.sql .

The code can be dropped into a SQL Developer PL/SQL report, used with SQLPLUS Spool and opened with a browser, or change the DBMS_OUTPUT.PRINT statements to HTP.P and copy the code into an Application Express PL/SQL region.

Try 3 Output / Try 4 Mock up (click to open in new window):

-Dave