Profiling is important for mobile apps, in particular for the Android platform. This presentation summarizes the state of the art in profiling Android applications as of Android version 4.3 "Jelly Bean"

1. Profiling
Hubert Hesse
Software Profiling Seminar 2013
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2. What is Android?
• First Developed by Android, Inc., since 2005
part of Google
• JAVA because of support of Tool Support and
Open Source Activity [Bornstein2008]
• First Android phone was sold in October 2008
HTC Dream (aka G1) iPhone
06/2007
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3. Latest Addition: Tablets
• With release of Nexus 7 2012 upsurge in
tablet market
• Android 4 – Design Guidelines
iPad
04/2010
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4. Dalvik Executable
• Convert java .class files into .dex format
• dx: Java Bytecode -> an alternative instruction
set compatible with Dalvik VM.
Write an Android Applications in any language
that compile to .class
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5. DalvikVMInternalsDanBornstein(Google)GoogleI/O2008
https://sites.google.com/site/io/dalvik-vm-internals/
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6. Why Profiling?
• When apps don’t perform as expected or
advertised, 99% of respondents said they
would take action: [Apigee2012]
Delete
immediately
33%
Delete if it
freeze > 30s
28%
Tell my peers
how bad it is
24%
Complain on
social media
15%
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7. Example: Google I/O App 2012
• (https://code.google.com/p/iosched/)
Default state todayAfter network/API? limit 7

8. Google I/O App 2012
• Do you notice the difference?
≈ 5% CPU ≈ 80% CPU
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9. Overview Profiling
From System profiling to UI Profiling:
On the device
Dalvik Debug Monitor
Static analysis
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Eclipse
Android Monitor
Standalone

10. On the device (Developer options)
Monitoring>Show CPU usage Drawing>Show Layout bounds
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11. Developer options II
Drawing>Show GPU view updates Drawing>Show GPU overdrawn
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12. Overview Profiling
• Dalvik Debug Monitor Server (DDMS)
• Running multiple Debugger Monitor sessions
through an USB cable?
DDMS
On the device
Static analysis
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13. Remote Java Profiling
Client Device
adb adbd
TCP/IP over
USB Cable
DDMS JDWP
Android
Runtime
Application Framework
App1 App2Debugger Eclipse
Screengrab ...
vendor-
defined
packets
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Debugger
Port: 8600

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15. 16

16. System View: Idle CPU usage ≈ 20%
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17. System View: Idle CPU usage ≈ 99%
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18. OpenGL Profiling
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19. Thread View: utime: user time
stime: system time
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20. 21

21. Method Profiling
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22. Demo
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23. Annotate with
Start/stopmethodprofiling
Debug.startMethodTracing(“file");
// start tracing to “/mnt/sdcard/file.trace"
// ...
// stop tracing
Debug.stopMethodTracing();
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24. 25

25. REMOVE Menu BAR
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26. Fix?
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27. Snapshot (forces GC)
Tracking over Time (start, stop, force GC)
Convert to heap to Eclipse MAT compatible format (with hprof-conv)
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28. Network l/O
Emulator Control
Telephony Status - network status (home, roaming, searching),
and speed and latency (GPRS, EDGE, UTMS, HSDPA).
Telephony Actions - Mock calls and SMS
Location Controls – Mock location
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29. System Profiling with systrace.py
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Bug in DDMS/Eclipse version.
$ python systrace.py --set-tags=gfx,view,wm
$ adb shell stop
$ adb shell start
$ python systrace.py --cpu-freq --cpu-load --time=10 -o mytracefile.html
Demo

30. Hierachy viewer
standalone tool
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31. Relative Measure,
Layout, Draw
Performance
Screen
appearance
Absolute Measure,
Layout, Draw
Performance
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32. Overview Profiling
From System profiling to UI Profiling:
Static analysis
On the device
DDMS
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33. LINT
Static Code Analysis
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34. Thank you.
Questions?
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35. REFERENCES
• [Apigee2012],
http://apigee.com/about/pressrelease/apigee
-survey-users-reveal-top-frustrations-lead-
bad-mobile-app-reviews
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