Method Invocation view and table

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

Display

Here is a sample of the Method Invocation view display:

Method invocation view 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 Orange-coloured piece of a stripe
The stripes indicate methods in threads. The color coding denotes the object's class. 
Time Number: 12.5 on gray background
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 both view and table contains the following controls:

Menu item Definition
zoom in button To zoom into the graph.
zoom in button To zoom out of the graph.
Home icon Return to the original graph size.
Show as percentage Show the Raw Cumulative time as a percentage.
Graph Colors Edit the graph colors.
area select button To select a portion of the graph to enlarge.
area select button Show Caller.
area select button Show Callee.
area select button Show previous invocation.
area select button Show next invocation.
area select button Open source code for the method.
A button with stylized icon 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:
     Sample status line, as defined below

Pop-up menu controls

Menu item Definition
Refresh Views icon Refresh the view
Edit graph colors icon Edit the graph colors.
Home icon Return to the original graph size.
area select button Show Method Details for the selected method.
Open method invocation for the selected method Show Method Invocation for the selected method.
Select the columns to be displayed in the method invocation table Choose columns to display in the invocation table.

Related concepts
Overview of the Profiling Tool
Execution Flow view and table

Related tasks
Profiling an application
Viewing invocations and callers of a method
Tutorial: Analyzing the profiling data from a Java process