Charts

3 min read

When a question is about a shape rather than a list, Oracle draws it instead of listing rows.

Automation over the last 30 days is a shape. Automated test cases is a list.

Ask for a Chart

Open Oracle in a project.
Ask about a distribution or a trend — for example, test cases by priority, or automation over the last 30 days.
The answer comes back drawn, with a title naming what it shows.

Change It Without Asking Again

Above the chart you get one control, and which one depends on what was drawn:

A breakdown — such as test cases by priority — gets a chart type switcher. Only the types that genuinely suit those axes are offered.
A trend — such as automation over time — gets a time window switcher: 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or all time.

Selecting either redraws immediately and calls no model. This is why the controls exist rather than asking you to rephrase: correcting a chart should cost nothing.

What It Can Draw

Oracle draws from a fixed vocabulary rather than inventing axes:

Breakdowns — a data source, a grouping and a measure — across test cases, requirements, executions, defects, test runs, releases, flaky tests and people.
Trends, at daily granularity: automation over time, test case count over time, defect status over time, and defect reopens over time.

Ask for a shape outside that and Oracle tells you so, rather than drawing something almost right.

When the Chart Is the Wrong Read

A chart that surprises you is usually the right numbers seen from the wrong angle. Two different fixes, and it is worth knowing which you need:

Symptom	Fix
The shape is right, the presentation is not	Switch the chart type — same numbers, different read
The window is too short or too long	Switch the time window
The grouping itself is wrong	Ask again — this is a different question

The first two cost nothing. The third is a new question, because a different grouping is a different query rather than a different view of one.

Charts Respect Your Access

A chart is built from the same records a table would be, under the same permissions. A data source you cannot read is not one you can chart, and Oracle will not offer it — see What Oracle Is Shown.

Where Charts Live Permanently

Oracle draws a chart to answer one question. It does not save it.

For charts you will want every week — on a dashboard, with saved collections and a project health score — use Observatory. Both use the same resolvers, so a chart Oracle draws and the same chart saved in Observatory cannot disagree about the numbers.