Working with Appeon Performance Analyzer

This section will talk about the following topics:

System Configuration

In order to make Appeon Performance Analyzer more convenient for future use, you can make some configurations in the System menu.

Click menu System | Config. The Appeon Performance Analyzer Configuration dialog opens:

Figure 10. Appeon Performance Analyzer Configuration dialog

Appeon Performance Analyzer Configuration dialog

Enable Tracing

This option controls if Appeon Performance Analyzer works or not. If you want to work with Appeon Performance Analyzer to analyze an application program, the option must be selected. By default it is selected.

Instant update

By selecting Instant update, the analysis data in the analyzing panel can be updated instantly when operation changes. When Instant update is not selected, Performance Analyzer will work faster; but users will need to manually click menu View | Update to see the latest data.

Restore to default location

By selecting this option, the main window of Appeon Performance Analyzer always opens at the default position. By unselecting this option, Appeon Performance Analyzer will remember its last position on the screen when it exits, and will open at the last location on the screen when it starts next time. By default, this option is selected.

Show window when started

By selecting this option, Appeon Performance Analyzer will automatically start when the Web application runs. You can deselect this option to disable the automatic starting of Appeon Performance Analyzer, and manually start Appeon Performance Analyzer by pressing Ctrl + Shift + F12. By default it is selected.

Child items limited

This option controls the maximum number of child items displayed in the treeview.

Enable log file

If you want to save the analyzing log in the local machine, select Enable log file. And the log file will be created after the Web application is closed.

Figure 11. Enable log file option

Enable log file option

As shown above, the default destination is in C:\ disk. You can specify a different location by clicking Browse to select an existing folder on your computer.

Clear previous log files when tracer started

This option becomes selectable when Enable log file is selected. If you want to clear the analyzing log files saved in the last starting of Appeon Performance Analyzer, select this option.

After you finish the configuration, click OK to close the dialog.

Calls Analysis

Appeon Performance Analyzer enables you to perform the following analysis easily:

No matter what operation you execute on the Web application, e.g. a click on a button to open a dialog in the Web application, a root item Root will show in the first line of the analyzing panel to show the total executing time consumed by the operation.

By expanding Root, you can view the time consumed by different callings.

By default, the JS Calls, Ax Calls, RPC, Download, Detail View buttons are selected, which means, information related with them will be automatically displayed in the analyzing panel and the detail view panel.

Figure 12. View menu

View menu

JavaScript Calls Analysis

By default, the View | View JS Calls menu item is selected, so the JavaScript calls are automatically listed in the analyzing panel. If you do not want to view the JavaScript calls in the analyzing panel, you can click View JS Calls menu item to deselect it. If you want to view the JavaScript calls only, you can click the other menu items in the View menu to deselect them, as shown in the figure below.

You can expand the sub-nodes in the JavaScript calls list to further find out the time consumed by each JavaScript function calls.

You can see more details of JavaScript calls in the detail view panel.

Figure 13. View JS Calls menu

View JS Calls menu

ActiveX Calls Analysis

By default, View AX Calls menu item in the View menu is selected, so the ActiveX calls are automatically listed in the analyzing panel. If you do not want to view the ActiveX calls in the analyzing panel, you can click View AX Calls menu item to deselect it. If you want to view the ActiveX calls only, you can click the other optional menu items in the View menu to deselect them, as shown in the figure below.

You can see more details of the ActiveX calls in the Detail View panel.

Figure 14. View AX Calls menu

View AX Calls menu

Remote Procedure Calls Analysis

By default, View RPC in the View menu is selected, so the RPC calls are automatically listed in the analyzing panel. If you do not want to view the RPC calls in the analyzing panel, you can click View RPC menu item to deselect it. If you want to view the RPC calls only, you can click the other optional menu items in the View menu to deselect them, as shown in the figure below.

You can see more details of the RPC calls in the Detail View panel.

Figure 15. View RPC menu

View RPC menu

Download Analysis

By default, View Download in the View menu is selected, so the downloads are automatically listed in the analyzing panel. If you do not want to view the downloads in the analyzing panel, you can click the View Download menu item to deselect it. If you want to view the downloads only, you can click the other optional menu items in the View menu to deselect them, as shown in the figure below.

You can see more details of downloads in the Detail View panel.

Figure 16. View Download menu

View Download menu

View Detail

By default, the View | View Detail menu item is selected, so the detail view panel is automatically displayed beneath the analyzing panel. If you do not want to see the detail view panel, you can click the View Detail menu item to deselect it.

The detail view panel enables you to view the details and statistics of calls.

View details of JavaScript calls in the detail view panel:

Display the detail view panel by selecting the View Detail menu item in the View menu.

Select the View JS Calls menu item in the View menu to display the JavaScript calls in the analyzing panel, then select a JavaScript call, the statistics of the selected call are displayed in the Statistics tab of the detail view panel.

Figure 17. View statistics of JavaScript calls

View statistics of JavaScript calls

View details of ActiveX calls in the detail view panel by selecting the Details tab:

Figure 18. View details of ActiveX calls

View details of ActiveX calls

View statistics of ActiveX calls in the detail view panel by selecting the Statistics tab:

Figure 19. View statistics of ActiveX calls

View statistics of ActiveX calls

View details of RPC calls in the detail view panel by selecting the Details tab:

Figure 20. View details of RPC calls

View details of RPC calls

View statistics of RPC calls in the detail view panel by selecting the Statistics tab:

Figure 21. View statistics of RPC calls

View statistics of RPC calls

View details of downloads in the detail view panel by selecting the Details tab:

The Details tab shows the download URL on the Web server and the storage location of the downloaded file.

Figure 22. View details of downloads

View details of downloads

View statistics of downloads in the detail view panel by selecting the Statistics tab:

Figure 23. View statistics of downloads

View statistics of downloads

View statistics of root items in the detail view panel:

When you click the item of Root, the Statistics tab shows the statistics for all the calls.

Figure 24. View statistics of root items

View statistics of root items

Apart from the above, the detail view panel can also show the search results. Refer to the Find function for details.

Additional Functions

Appeon Performance Analyzer also provides the following additional functions:

Filter function

Appeon Performance Analyzer enables you to filter the functions or objects which you do not want to focus on temporarily. Here, in Appeon Performance Analyzer, to filter means to remove.

The filter function is only applicable to ActiveX calling analysis.

Click System | Filter menu item and the Filter Configuration dialog opens. Select Enable Filter.

Note: To enable the Filter function, you must make sure Enable Tracing is selected in System Configuration dialog.

If you want to analyze all the functions or objects in the application, make sure that Enable Filter is not selected.

Figure 25. Filter Configuration dialog

Filter Configuration dialog

Filter function for ActiveX calls analysis

Go through the steps below to learn how to filter objects and functions for ActiveX calls analysis.

Step 1: Make sure View AX Calls under the View menu is selected, so all the ActiveX functions and objects called in the operation are listed.

Figure 26. View ActiveX calls

View ActiveX calls

Step 2: Click menu System | Filter. In the Filter Configuration dialog, select Enable Filter.

Figure 27. Filter Configuration dialog

Filter Configuration dialog

Step 3: In the Filter group box, click the Function button. The Function Picker dialog opens.

Figure 28. Function Picker dialog

Function Picker dialog

Step 4: Select the functions and/or objects in the Unselected list. Click the arrow button () to move the selected items to the Selected list. Click OK to close the dialog.

The double-arrow buttons and are used to move all items from one list to the other.

Figure 29. Selected functions and objects

Selected functions and objects

Now, the selected items are displayed in the Filter group box.

Note that they are in Group 1. You can have different groups for storing different selected items. The different groups can be all functions, all objects, or mixed with functions and objects.

Figure 30. Filter Configuration dialog

Filter Configuration dialog

Step 5: In the Option group box, select Filter Unselected. This will display the selected items only, and hide the unselected items. If you select Filter Selected, it will hide the selected items, and display the unselected items.

Step 6: Click OK to close the dialog.

If Filter Unselected is selected, the analyzing panel is refreshed to show the selected items only (and hide the unselected items).

Figure 31. Result from Filter Unselected

Result from Filter Unselected

If Filter Selected is selected, the analyzing panel is refreshed to show the unselected items only (and hind the selected items).

Figure 32. Result from Filter selected

Result from Filter selected

Find function

You can find functions or objects by typing part of or complete name of the function or object.

If you click menu System | Find, a dialog box will pop up as below:

Figure 33. Find dialog

Find dialog

For example, type "applica" in the Find field, then click OK.

Figure 34. Find dialog

Find dialog

The detail View panel shows all the results related to "applica" in the Find in Tree tab.

Figure 35. Find results

Find results

Save As XML function

The Performance Analyzer allows you to save the analysis contents in the analyzing panel as XML files.

If you click menu System | Save As XML, a dialog box will pop up as below:

Figure 36. Save As dialog

Save As dialog

Input the file name and select the path, and then click the Save button to save the XML file.

New Root Item function

To obverse analysis data easily, you can click menu View | Clear All to clear the original analysis data, or create new root items.

If you click menu System | New Root Item, a dialog box will pop up as below:

Figure 37. New Root Item dialog

New Root Item dialog

Input a root item name (eg. new) and click the OK button. A new root item named "new" is added in the analysis panel.

Figure 38. New root item is added

New root item is added

After this, the root item "new" will be used to display the analysis data in a way similar to the default Root item.

Figure 39. Data in the new root item

Data in the new root item