Analyzing Timeline Profiling Results in Visual Studio

Since dotTrace 10, you can analyze timeline profiling results right in Visual Studio (as an alternative to the standalone Timeline Viewer). This is done with the help of a special Timeline Viewer version integrated in Visual Studio. This viewer is represented with the Performance Profiler window and in terms of functionality it is almost identical with the standalone Timeline Viewer.

Note that the list of collected snapshots is synced between the standalone and integrated dotTrace viewers.

Pros of Using the Integrated Viewer

• More seamless experience. As analysis is performed in Visual Studio, there is no need to switch between the source code and the profiler.
• Navigation from call tree to the source code and vice versa.*
  You can navigate from a particular method in Call Tree (in the profiling results) right to its declaration, as well as from the method declaration in the code to its occurrence in Call Tree.
• Analyzing big amounts of profiling data in Visual Studio may be inconvenient due to the lack of space on the screen.

Get Started

If you are new to timeline profiling, start with the Timeline Viewer Concepts section.

In addition, we strongly recommend that you read the Find the Cause of a UI Freeze and Optimize App Performance and Memory Traffic tutorials.

If you are already acquainted with the timeline profiling, proceed to the Performance Profiler Concepts section. It provides details on the user interface of the integrated viewer.

As Performance Profiler and standalone Timeline Viewer provide almost the same functionality, you can use the corresponding sections dedicated to the standalone viewer as a reference for the integrated one.