Start Profiling Session from Visual Studio
The main usage scenario of dotTrace integrated in Visual Studio is profiling the currently developed application. For this purpose, in this mode, dotTrace offers some additional profiling capabilities. More specifically, it allows you to profile not just a particular project, but a particular 'run configuration'.
Run configurations give you an ability to create a number of predefined configurations with different run parameters for your startup project, an arbitrary executable, or even any static method*. For example, you can create a number of configurations that will differ by CPU architecture and CLR version. These configurations can be used to quickly run or debug your project without the need to set up particular run parameters each time. As dotTrace shares the ReSharper platform, it is able to profile any run configuration.
By default, your solution has only one run configuration - the configuration for the startup project.
In this section:
To start profiling of a startup project
Do one of the following*:
If you did not yet create any run configurations, in the Visual Studio menu, select .
If you have more than one (default) run configurations, the Visual Studio menu, select and choose the [project_name] (VS Startup) configuration. Then select .
This will open the Profile Startup Project window.
In the Profile Startup Project window, configure profiling settings as described in Configure Profiling Session.
Click Start.
To start profiling of a specific run configuration
Create a run configuration for your project, executable, or particular static method. To do this, in the Visual Studio menu, select , select the corresponding item. This will open the window with run configuration options. For more details on them, refer to the ReSharper documentation.
Select the created run configuration using the Visual Studio menu .
In the Visual Studio menu, select . This will open the Profile Startup Project window.
In the Profile Startup Project window, configure profiling settings as described in Configure Profiling Session.
Click Start.
You can also use the Performance Profiler window to quickly start profiling of a particular run configuration.
To quickly start profiling of a specific run configuration
Create a run configuration for your project, executable, or particular static method. To do this, in the Visual Studio menu, select , select the corresponding item. This will open the window with run configuration options.
For more details on them, refer to the ReSharper documentation.Open the Performance Profiler window using the Visual Studio menu .
In the Performance Profiler window, in the
list, select profiling type.In the Performance Profiler window, in the run configurations list, select the created configuration.
Click
.
Note that profiling of run configurations for static methods can be started using the action list of the particular static method.
To quickly start profiling of a static method
Open the action list for the method by placing cursor on the method and pressing Alt + Enter.
In the list, select .
Note that this session will use the profiling type that is currently selected in the Performance Profiler window.
In the Profile Startup Project window, configure profiling settings as described in Configure Profiling Session.
Click Start.
If you want to profile an arbitrary application from Visual Studio (rather than a particular run configuration), you have such a capability. To do this:
To start profiling of another application
In the Visual Studio menu, select . This will open the Profile Application window.