Method Invocation tab

The Method Invocation tab shows a representation of the entire course of a program's execution and also provides the ability to navigate through the methods that invoked the selected method.

The tab uses the same graphical metaphor as the Execution Flow view and the Method Invocation table contains the same information as the Execution Flow table.

The Method Invocation table can be invoked only from the Method Invocation tab, which can only be invoked from Execution Statistics view, and the Execution Flow view.

Display

Here is a sample of the Method Invocation tab display: Method invocation tab showing three threads

Stripes cascade to the right as one method calls another method, whose responding method in turn calls another method, and so on. Stripes are grouped in columns by thread. A thin, black vertical line separates one column from another. The name of each thread appears at the top of its column.

Stripes

The stripes indicate methods in threads. The color coding denotes the object's class.

Time

Time is measured in seconds and it's on the vertical axis, starting at the top. The height of a stripe indicates the time spent executing the method.

Names

The top black line indicates that the main, actionPerformed, called addButton. Lines are black unless the method is a constructor, in which case the line and labels are red.

In the Method Invocation table, the method invocations are listed in the first column, threads are grouped in the second column and the time is recorded in successive rows.

Note: The profiling views are described here using Java™. Profiling data from a different application context might change the terms and syntax used in the views. For more information, see Understanding application contexts in profiling views.

Controls

Toolbar controls

The toolbar for this tab contains the following controls:

Menu item	Definition
	To zoom into the graph.
	To zoom out of the graph.
	Return to the original graph size.
	Show the Raw Cumulative time as a percentage.
	Edit the graph colors.
	To select a portion of the graph to enlarge.
	Show Caller.
	Show Callee.
	Show previous invocation.
	Show next invocation.
	Open source code for the method.
	Select the Show Time option to select the time basis of the graph. Raw time: the time that an application takes to run, including the profiling overhead. Compensated time: time the application takes minus the time attributed to profiling. Select the Show Called and Show Caller to display the invoked method or the calling method, respectively. Select the Next and Previous options to move to the next or previous methods in the display. Select the Display Application Context option to display profiling data based on a programming language or data collection context. For more information, see Understanding application contexts in profiling views.

Control on the graph

The status line of the Method Invocation graph is also different than in the Execution Flow graph. Point the mouse over a stripe to display status information, for example the sample status line defined below: Engine.start in Engine.7816 at: 2.786610 cumulative time: 0.003617

Method call: Engine.start()
Class instance: Engine.7816
Time of call (instantiation time in the case of constructors): 2.786610
Cumulative time spent in the method: 0.003617

Pop-up menu controls

Header	Header
	Refresh the view
	Edit the graph colors.
	Return to the original graph size.
	Show Method Details for the selected method.
	Show Method Invocation for the selected method.
	Choose columns to display in the invocation table.

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