Profiling Local Silverlight Applications

Applies to AQTime 8.81, last modified on January 18, 2022

AQTime can profile in-browser and out-of-browser Silverlight applications. This topic explains how to profile in-browser Silverlight applications running on a local machine.

For information on how to profile Silverlight applications hosted on web sites, see Profiling Remote Silverlight Applications.

Preparing an Application for Profiling

To profile a Silverlight application with AQTime, there is no need to prepare the application in a special way.

Some preparations are required only if you need to profile individual source lines of your Silverlight application. In this case, you need to compile the application with debug information. See How AQTime Profilers Use Metadata and Debug Information for detailed information on how to do this.

Preparing an AQTime Project

  1. Launch AQTime and create a new empty AQTime project.

  2. Add the profiled application’s dll to the Modules pane.

  3. Choose the elements to be profiled by adding them to custom areas or select Entire .NET Code or All Project Modules to profile all the routines.

  4. Specify the profiling level.

    Note: To profile a Silverlight application at the line level, the application must be compiled with debug information (see above).
  5. Select the Normal profiling mode on AQTime’s Standard toolbar.

    Select the Normal profiling mode on Visual Studio’s AQTime toolbar.

    Select the Normal profiling mode on RAD Studio’s AQTime Profiling Modes toolbar.

  6. Choose Run > Parameters from AQTime’s main menu.Choose AQTime > Parameters from Visual Studio’s main menu.Choose AQTime > Parameters from RAD Studio’s menu. This will invoke the Run Parameters dialog.

  7. Specify a web browser that you will use to launch the profiled application. You can either enter the path to the browser's executable manually in the Specify custom host application edit box, or select the needed browser from the Select generic host application drop-down list.

    Note: Remember that Silverlight applications do not work in 64-bit browsers.
  8. In the Parameters edit box, specify the path to the HTML file that is generated with your Silverlight application.

  9. Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog.

  10. Select the needed profiler from the Profilers drop-down list on the Standard toolbar. For a list of available profilers, see Supported Profilers.

Now, the project is ready for profiling.

Profiling Procedure

  1. Start the profiling in AQTime. AQTime will launch your web browser, which, in its turn, will open your application.

    Profiling Silverlight applications by attaching a profiler to a running Silverlight application is currently not supported.
  2. Perform the needed actions over the application. AQTime will profile it.

  3. To generate results, either close the application, or use the Get Results command. AQTime will display the profiling results in its panels.

    If you profile your application with the Entire .NET Code (Routines only) area enabled, AQTime reports the results of Silverlight code profiling along with the profiling results of other CLR routines that were called from your application. To distinguish the Silverlight application’s routines among other .NET routines in the Report panel, use the Module Name column. Grouping the results by this column lets you quickly find the routines of your application.

See Also

Profiling Silverlight Applications - Overview
Profiling Remote Silverlight Applications
Profiling Out-of-Browser Silverlight Applications

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