Monitoring the responsiveness of a user interface
A diagnostic mechanism monitors execution of a user interface (UI) thread to detect execution of a long running task that may have caused the UI thread to become unresponsive. The execution time of the UI thread is monitored and when it exceeds a threshold, the UI thread's call stack is preserved to a mini-dump file. The completion time of the UI thread is also tracked and stored in a delay file. The mini-dump and delay files are then uploaded to a server where the collected data is aggregated overall execution runs by multiple users to identify the cause of the unresponsiveness.
1. A method for monitoring the responsiveness of a user interface, comprising:
monitoring execution of a user interface (UI) thread processing an event from when the UI thread initiates execution of a message associated with the event to completion of an event handler that is associated with the event;
determining that the UI thread is unresponsive when an amount of time the UI thread takes to process the event exceeds a threshold;
suspending execution of the UI thread;
during the suspended execution of the UI thread, preserving a call stack associated with the UI thread when the UI thread is determined to be unresponsive; and
resuming execution of the UI thread once the call stack is preserved,
wherein the preceding steps are performed on at least one processor.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
aggregating a plurality of call stacks and a plurality of delay times associated with unresponsiveness of the UI thread.
3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising:
transmitting the aggregated plurality of call stacks and aggregated plurality of delays times to a remote server.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring execution of the UI thread is performed by a monitoring thread executing concurrently in a same process as the UI thread.
5. The method of claim 1 , the determining step further comprising:
resetting a stored time value prior to the UI thread initiating execution of the event; and
polling a current timer until the current timer meets the threshold.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event is represented in the form of at least one message, wherein the threshold represents a predetermined amount of time the UI thread is expected to retrieve a message from a message queue.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein an operating system inserts the message into a message queue upon detection of a user input and wherein the UI thread initiates processing of the event when the UI thread pulls the message off the message queue.
8. A device, comprising:
at least one processor and a memory;
the at least one processor configured to:
monitor execution of a user interface (UI) thread processing an event from when the UI thread initiates execution of a message associated with the event to completion of an event handler that is associated with the event;
determine that the UI thread is unresponsive when an amount of time the UI thread takes to process the event exceeds a threshold;
suspend execution of the UI thread;
during the suspended execution of the UI thread, preserve a call stack associated with the UI thread when the UI thread is determined to be unresponsive; and
resume execution of the UI thread once the call stack is preserved.
9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
aggregate a plurality of call stacks and a plurality of delay times associated with unresponsiveness of the UI thread.
10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
transmit the aggregated plurality of call stacks and aggregated plurality of delay times to a remote server.
11. The device of claim 8 , wherein monitor execution of the UI thread is performed by a monitoring thread executing concurrently in a same process as the UI thread.
12. The device of claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
reset a stored time value prior to the UI thread initiating execution of the event; and
poll a current timer until the current timer meets the threshold.
13. The device of claim 8 , wherein the event is represented in the form of at least one message, wherein the threshold represents a predetermined amount of time the UI thread is expected to retrieve a message from a message queue.
14. The device of claim 8 , wherein an operating system inserts the message into a message queue upon detection of a user input and wherein the UI thread initiates processing of the event when the UI thread pulls the message off the message queue.
15. A system, comprising:
at least one processor and a memory;
the at least one processor configured to:
monitor execution of a user interface (UI) thread processing an event from when the UI thread initiates execution of a message associated with the event to completion of an event handler that is associated with the event;
determine that the UI thread is unresponsive when an amount of time the UI thread takes to process the event exceeds a threshold;
suspend execution of the UI thread;
during the suspended execution of the UI thread, preserve a call stack associated with the UI thread when the UI thread is determined to be unresponsive; and
resume execution of the UI thread once the call stack is preserved.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein monitor execution of the UI thread is performed by a monitoring thread executing concurrently in a same process as the UI thread.
17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
aggregate a plurality of call stacks and a plurality of delay times associated with unresponsiveness of the UI thread.
18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
reset a stored time value prior to the UI thread initiating execution of the event; and
poll a current timer until the current timer meets the threshold.
19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the event is represented in the form of at least one message, wherein the threshold represents a predetermined amount of time the UI thread is expected to retrieve a message from a message queue.
20. The system of claim 15 , wherein an operating system inserts the message into a message queue upon detection of a user input and wherein the UI thread initiates processing of the event when the UI thread pulls the message off the message queue.