Hi there,

       I have been working on a visualization system that presents
information about any java application pictorially, as it runs. As of
now, we instrument the code of the target application to generate
events such as "class access", "method entry & exit", "current thread"
etc, however we want to :

1. Leave the target code alone and get the information directly from
the JVM.
2. Develop the system into an Eclipse plugin.

       Is there a way in which we can tap into the JVM within Eclipse
and get the required information. Any suggestions, ideas and
recommendations are welcome.

Thanks,
Mahim.

Mahim (absletters@hotmail.com) wrote:
: 1. Leave the target code alone and get the information directly from
: the JVM.
: 2. Develop the system into an Eclipse plugin.

:        Is there a way in which we can tap into the JVM within Eclipse
: and get the required information. Any suggestions, ideas and
: recommendations are welcome.

There are a few profilers that you may want to look at. Here are a few
open ones that can be a starting point perhaps: 

Eclipse profiler plugin: 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipsecolorer/

jmechanic for eclipse: 
http://jmechanic.sourceforge.net/

My own profiler not for eclipse, but may have its uses, jmp: 
http://www.khelekore.org/jmp/

Many profilers for java use the jvmpi (C-)interface to get the
information needed, but there are also a few that change the bytecode
upon class loading...

/robo

I have been doing something similar - have a look at the Java Platform 
Debugging Archtecture (JPDA) otherwise known as Java Debuggin Interface 
(JDI) .  This is actually supplied as part of the new runtimes (>1.3 I 
believe).  It allows you to hook into the JVM and get callbacks on all 
of these things.  It even comes with an example that displays all of the 
method entries/exits and variable assignments.

See: http://java.sun.com/products/jpda/

Hope this helps,

Cheers

Rory


Mahim wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
>        I have been working on a visualization system that presents
> information about any java application pictorially, as it runs. As of
> now, we instrument the code of the target application to generate
> events such as "class access", "method entry & exit", "current thread"
> etc, however we want to :
> 
> 1. Leave the target code alone and get the information directly from
> the JVM.
> 2. Develop the system into an Eclipse plugin.
> 
>        Is there a way in which we can tap into the JVM within Eclipse
> and get the required information. Any suggestions, ideas and
> recommendations are welcome.
> 
> Thanks,
> Mahim.

Thanks Rory, I went over the documentations for jpda and found it very
interesting. I know I have to delve further into it. Thanks a lot for
providing a direction.

Mahim.

Rory Graves <rorynews@btopenworld.com> wrote in message news:<bjir92$neh$1@hercules.btinternet.com>...
> I have been doing something similar - have a look at the Java Platform 
> Debugging Archtecture (JPDA) otherwise known as Java Debuggin Interface 
> (JDI) .  This is actually supplied as part of the new runtimes (>1.3 I 
> believe).  It allows you to hook into the JVM and get callbacks on all 
> of these things.  It even comes with an example that displays all of the 
> method entries/exits and variable assignments.
> 
> See: http://java.sun.com/products/jpda/
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Rory
> 
> 
> Mahim wrote:
> > Hi there,
> > 
> >        I have been working on a visualization system that presents
> > information about any java application pictorially, as it runs. As of
> > now, we instrument the code of the target application to generate
> > events such as "class access", "method entry & exit", "current thread"
> > etc, however we want to :
> > 
> > 1. Leave the target code alone and get the information directly from
> > the JVM.
> > 2. Develop the system into an Eclipse plugin.
> > 
> >        Is there a way in which we can tap into the JVM within Eclipse
> > and get the required information. Any suggestions, ideas and
> > recommendations are welcome.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Mahim.

Thanks Robo, I would certainly look at the resources you have pointed
out. However, I was more interested in programming it myself, as there
are certain aspects of the project that I need to consider. If I could
have had a look at the source code of any of the profiling tools that
you have mentioned, it would have been great.

Thanks again,
Mahim.

d94-rol@tjatte.nada.kth.se (Robert Olofsson) wrote in message news:<bjie0t$8ao$2@news.kth.se>...
> Mahim (absletters@hotmail.com) wrote:
> : 1. Leave the target code alone and get the information directly from
> : the JVM.
> : 2. Develop the system into an Eclipse plugin.
>  
> :        Is there a way in which we can tap into the JVM within Eclipse
> : and get the required information. Any suggestions, ideas and
> : recommendations are welcome.
> 
> There are a few profilers that you may want to look at. Here are a few
> open ones that can be a starting point perhaps: 
> 
> Eclipse profiler plugin: 
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipsecolorer/
> 
> jmechanic for eclipse: 
> http://jmechanic.sourceforge.net/
> 
> My own profiler not for eclipse, but may have its uses, jmp: 
> http://www.khelekore.org/jmp/
> 
> Many profilers for java use the jvmpi (C-)interface to get the
> information needed, but there are also a few that change the bytecode
> upon class loading...
> 
> /robo

Mahim (absletters@hotmail.com) wrote:
: If I could
: have had a look at the source code of any of the profiling tools that
: you have mentioned, it would have been great.

: d94-rol@tjatte.nada.kth.se (Robert Olofsson) wrote in message news:<bjie0t$8ao$2@news.kth.se>...
: > http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipsecolorer/
.....
: > http://jmechanic.sourceforge.net/
.....
: > http://www.khelekore.org/jmp/

All of the mentioned resources point to open source and/or free software.
For example the source for eclipsecolorer can be found in 
the CVS for it, browsable at: 
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/eclipsecolorer/

have fun
/robo