Overview

The Performance Monitor is an essential extension to Ciphix Dev Tools, a powerful toolkit designed to make Mendix development faster and smarter. While the Dev Tools provide features like data exploration, client state management, and security checks, this module takes it further by offering detailed performance insights for your Mendix applications.

Key Features of the Performance Monitor

• Client and Server Activity Analysis:
  • Record application activity on both the client and server.
  • Visualize performance in a detailed waterfall graph.
  • Drill down into microflows to explore statistics on actions, queries, sub-microflows, and other key events. (Requires an additional module in your project.)
• Comprehensive Metrics: Gain a complete overview of recorded actions, allowing you to pinpoint bottlenecks and optimize performance.

Documentation

Typical Usage Scenario

The Performance Monitor module for Ciphix Dev Tools is ideal for Mendix developers who want to optimize application performance and troubleshoot bottlenecks efficiently. It allows users to record and analyze client-server interactions, providing detailed insights into microflows, queries, and events. This module records the performance statistics that are in turn visualized by the Ciphix Mendix dev tools.

Problems Solved:

• Identifying slow-performing microflows and queries.
• Analyzing complex pages with lots of interactions in an easy and visual way.
• See what Mendix does under the hood and understand the impact of your design choices.

Features and Limitations

Features:

• Mendix 10 and 9 support: We support Mendxi 9.24.12 and up.
• Comprehensive Activity Recording: Capture and analyze both client-side and server-side interactions with a detailed waterfall graph for visualization.
• Statistics and breakdowns of performance metrics: See important performance metrics visualized in donut charts and other visualizations on various levels such as the entire recording, a specific microflow or an activity.
• Microflow Drill-Down: Access in-depth statistics on actions, queries, sub-microflows, and events to understand performance at a granular level.
• Intuitive Integration: Works seamlessly with the Ciphix Dev Tools, extending its capabilities with advanced performance monitoring.

Limitations:

• Not Recommended for Production Environments (atm): We advise against using the Performance Monitor on production environments or online environments containing sensitive data at this time until we have had more time to battle test it in such environments.
• Short-Term Performance Monitoring: The tool is designed for measuring and analyzing short-term performance sessions rather than continuous or long-duration monitoring.

Installation

1. Modules: Ensure the Ciphix Dev Tools module and the Ciphix Mendix devtools module are added to your Mendix application.

2. Microflow Setup: Add the microflow ASU_PerformanceMonitor to your application's After Startup.

3. Configure Constants:

   • Set the constant CiphixPerformanceMonitor.Enabled to true in your profile (localhost) or in Sprinter under Model Options → Constants.
   • Define a secret, random string of at least 50 characters for the constant CiphixPerformanceMonitor.Token. This token is required to securely connect the Performance Monitor to your application.

4. Access the Performance Monitor: After launching your application, open the Dev Tools by pressing Alt+B (Windows) or Cmd+B (Mac). Navigate to the Performance tab, hover over the gear icon in the top-right corner, and enter the token to connect to your application.

5. Start Recording: Once connected, click the record icon in the top-left corner to begin capturing performance data.