What's new in JProfiler 12.0

Flame graphs are implemented as a call tree analysis and are nested below the current call tree view. By selecting a node in the call tree, you can set the initial root node for the flame graph.

Child nodes are sorted alphabetically and are centered on their parent node. Due to the self-time that is spent in each node, the "flames" get progressively more narrow toward the top. More information about nodes is displayed in the tool tip.

Flame graphs have a very high information density. You can zoom in on areas of interest, or set a new root node by double-clicking on it. When changing roots multiple times in a row, you can move back again in the history of roots.

Another way to analyze flame graphs is to add colorizations based on class names, package names or arbitrary search terms. The first matching colorization is used for each node.

Colorizations can be conveniently added and removed from the context menu.

In addition to colorizations, you can use the quick search functionality to find nodes of interest. With the cursor keys you can cycle through match results while the tooltip is being displayed for the currently highlighted match.

Flame graphs are not only available for top-level call tree views but also for the results of other call tree analyses, such as "Collapsed recursions".

The events view of the HTTP Server probe can list the single URL interceptions chronologically.

Just like for Servlet containers, the call tree is split for each URL, so you can see associated subtree separately.

To determine the granularity of the split as well as the displayed URL, the probe settings of the HTTP server probe now offer generic splitting scripts in addition to the Servlet scripts.

Unlike for Servlet scripts that offer the HttpRequest object from the Servlet API as a parameter, the Netty landscape is less stable with several incompatible APIs. This is why JProfiler offers an HttpRequest parameter from its own API to provide access to common request properties. Advanced use cases can get the underlying Netty request object via the getRequestObject() method.

As with Servlet scripts, you can configure a list of scripts to create multiple nested splitting levels in the call tree. Several script templates for common tasks are available.

Netty is mostly used for async handling of HTTP requests. Because of the associated thread changes, the subtree below an URL in the call tree will not show the entire handling of the request.

With the async request tracking functionality in JProfiler, you can follow the entire execution flow. Most frameworks, like Spring Reactor use executors for async handling, so the "Executors" request tracking type has to be activated. If you are using a server based on Kotlin Coroutines like Ktor, then "Kotlin Coroutines" is the required tracking type.

If async tracking is used, the call tree view will suggest to inline async executions both on top of the view as well as on the call sites where the async calls are initiated.

The result of the "Inline async executions" analysis then contains a single call tree across all involved threads that show you the entire handling of a particular request URL, cumulated for all matching requests.

Initially, the JVM processes running directly on the remote machine are listed. At the top of the remote attach dialog is a line that shows the currently selected remote Docker container.

With the Switch container hyperlink you can then choose a running Docker container.

After selecting a Docker container, all JVMs that are running in it are shown. JProfiler will then use Docker commands to automatically install the profiling agent in the selected container, prepare the JVM for profiling and tunnel the profiling protocol to the outside.

If the SSH login user is not in the docker group, you can switch the remote user first.

Previously, when connecting to a remote machine, a JRE had to be available for the login user, or the connection would fail. Starting with this release, a message is shown in the JVM list with a hyperlink to manually enter a path to a JRE. This allows you to switch to a user that may have access to a JRE or switch to a Docker container that contains a JRE.

Previously, when changing the user on the remote machine, no HPROF snapshots could be taken. In this release, a method to transfer the heap dump data between accounts has been implemented and the "Heap dump only" action is now enabled.

When you select a class loader in the grouping table at the top, the corresponding java.lang.Class objects are shown in in the data views below.

A preference page has been added where you can adjust the JProfiler executable as well as the window policy for opening new profiling sessions. All other settings continue to be available the session startup dialog and are saved separately for each NetBeans project.