Net panel timeline issue+question

[matt]

I've just started to use firebug in anger and I have two points which
are bugging me (no pun intended) at the moment. Basically the site I'm
working on uses a bunch of post requests to return data for display to
the user, so a 'session' consists of logging on to the site and then a
sequence of individual posts as the user interacts with the site.

One question:

1) How does the net panel switch between the 'sequential' mode where
subsequent requests are shown to 'following' earlier requests (a bit
like a gantt chart in a project plan) and the 'full width' mode where
each request is shown filling the full width of the timeline area? I
suspect there's some logic to determine whether requests are part of
the same session...? From my perspective it would be nice to allow
explicit switching - in my case I'll sometimes have 100s of requests
in a 'session' and so the gantt chart view becomes almost unusable
because each timeline entry is only a couple of pixels wide.

... and one (apparent) bug:

2) The hover/popup for the timeline which shows the timing breakdown
(DNS/connecting/queueing/waiting/receiving) does not update as you
mouse over entries in the timeline - basically it 'freezes' on
whatever timeline entry you moused over first and you have to perform
a dance with the mouse moving 'out' to the left and then back to the
right on the desired timeline entry to get the popup to update.

NB I'm using firebug 1.4.2 with firefox 3.5.4 on Windows.

[Honza (Jan Odvarko)]

> 1) How does the net panel switch between the 'sequential' mode where
> subsequent requests are shown to 'following' earlier requests (a bit
> like a gantt chart in a project plan) and the 'full width' mode where
> each request is shown filling the full width of the timeline area? I
> suspect there's some logic to determine whether requests are part of
> the same session...? From my perspective it would be nice to allow
> explicit switching - in my case I'll sometimes have 100s of requests
> in a 'session' and so the gantt chart view becomes almost unusable
> because each timeline entry is only a couple of pixels wide.

A new session starts automatically if there is a 1 sec gap between
requests
(i.e. if the next request starts more than 1000ms after the previous
request started)
All requests made during the page load are automatically part of the
first session.

I was thinking about couple of improvement.
1) The 1s interval could be at least customizable through Firebug's
preferences
2) There could be perhaps a menu item(s) (within the Net's panel
context menu) that allows to join two sessions or start a new session
(by right-clicking on appropriate request entry) later when the users
is analyzing the timeline.

What do you think?

> 2) The hover/popup for the timeline which shows the timing breakdown
> (DNS/connecting/queueing/waiting/receiving) does not update as you
> mouse over entries in the timeline - basically it 'freezes' on
> whatever timeline entry you moused over first and you have to perform
> a dance with the mouse moving 'out' to the left and then back to the
> right on the desired timeline entry to get the popup to update.

Can you please check if this is fixed in Firebug 1.5X.0b3.xpi ?
http://getfirebug.com/releases/firebug/1.5X/

Honza

[matt]

On Nov 9, 1:41 pm, "Honza (Jan Odvarko)" <odva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was thinking about couple of improvement.
> 1) The 1s interval could be at least customizable through Firebug's
> preferences
> 2) There could be perhaps a menu item(s) (within the Net's panel
> context menu) that allows to join two sessions or start a new session
> (by right-clicking on appropriate request entry)  later when the users
> is analyzing the timeline.
>
> What do you think?

Sounds good - although I'd still like to have an option to 'force'
each request to be displayed as if it were a new session...

>
> > 2) The hover/popup for the timeline which shows the timing breakdown
> > (DNS/connecting/queueing/waiting/receiving) does not update as you
> > mouse over entries in the timeline - basically it 'freezes' on
> > whatever timeline entry you moused over first and you have to perform
> > a dance with the mouse moving 'out' to the left and then back to the
> > right on the desired timeline entry to get the popup to update.
>
> Can you please check if this is fixed in Firebug 1.5X.0b3.xpi   ?http://getfirebug.com/releases/firebug/1.5X/

I tried this at home (OSX + Firefox 3.6beta + Firebug 1.5b3) and it
looks as though the hover behaviour is improved but not fixed - I
couldn't quite get to the bottom of the behaviour but *sometimes* when
moving the mouse up/down to a different request the hover details were
updated and sometimes not, mostly you still need to mouse 'out' of the
request stats area and then back in again.

[Honza (Jan Odvarko)]

> Sounds good - although I'd still like to have an option to 'force'
> each request to be displayed as if it were a new session...

I am a bit reluctant to create such option. I am afraid that it would
be hard to understand what is it for. But, perhaps I am wrong.

Anyway, the first step could be to to have the interval options, which
if set to 0 ensures that every request uses its own session.

> I tried this at home (OSX + Firefox 3.6beta + Firebug 1.5b3) and it
> looks as though the hover behaviour is improved but not fixed - I
> couldn't quite get to the bottom of the behaviour but *sometimes* when
> moving the mouse up/down to a different request the hover details were
> updated and sometimes not, mostly you still need to mouse 'out' of the
> request stats area and then back in again.

I couldn't reproduce that it just works for me, but I have Vista so,
perhaps
some Mac related issue?

Honza

[matt]

> > I tried this at home (OSX + Firefox 3.6beta + Firebug 1.5b3) and it
> > looks as though the hover behaviour is improved but not fixed - I
> > couldn't quite get to the bottom of the behaviour but *sometimes* when
> > moving the mouse up/down to a different request the hover details were
> > updated and sometimes not, mostly you still need to mouse 'out' of the
> > request stats area and then back in again.
>
> I couldn't reproduce that it just works for me, but I have Vista so,
> perhaps
> some Mac related issue?

I get the same (broken) behaviour with 1.5b4 on Windows XP with
Firefox 3.5.5 here in the office. I'll try to post a screenshot to
confirm.

[Olostan]

Hello.

Talking about 1s gap between starting a new session there was:

On Nov 9, 3:41 pm, "Honza (Jan Odvarko)" <odva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was thinking about couple of improvement.
> 1) The 1s interval could be at least customizable through Firebug's
> preferences

Is it planning to implement near future? I'd like to have an option do
not start new session until I press 'Clear' to see full timeline. Like
'Persist' button in 1.5X now.

May be somebody can help to implement (where to search) or do that?

Olostan

[Honza (Jan Odvarko)]

> Is it planning to implement near future? I'd like to have an option do
> not start new session until I press 'Clear' to see full timeline. Like
> 'Persist' button in 1.5X now.

Patch for this committed at R5207-8.

The interval is now customizable through
extensions.firebug.netPhaseInterval preference (default value 1000 ms)

The value specifies a time interval [ms] (gap between two requests),
after which a new phase (session) is started in the Net panel's
timeline graph.

If set to 0, no new phase is started till page-refresh (without
Persist activated) or till Clear.

Will be available in Firebug 1.5b7
Honza

[Olostan]

On Dec 9, 4:42 pm, "Honza (Jan Odvarko)" <odva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Patch for this committed at R5207-8.

Thnx! Thats what I am waiting for!

[Jan Honza Odvarko]

On Mar 13, 12:31 pm, colin.ro...@enverian.com wrote:
> I am seeing erratic behaviour on the Net Panel timeline.
>
> Sometimes it shows the requests with no break, and sometimes with a break.
> I have not set any extension (I assume therefore that it is using the
> default 1000).
Perhaps there is a time-gap between that is sometimes less than 1000
and
sometimes higher than 1000 ms?

What if you change the default to 2000?
extensions.firebug.netPhaseInterval

all prefs explained here:
https://getfirebug.com/wiki/index.php/Firebug_Preferences

Honza

>
> I like the gantt view of elapsed time for some things, and the break at
> other times. But not knowing which and switching between the 2 is a problem
> for me as I do not understand what drives the view.
>
> -Colin.

[colin...@enverian.com]

Thanks Honza,
Perhaps I can clarify.

If I perform the same operation 5 times on a page manually at 5 seconds intervals I see either one of two things:

1. I see the 5 operations spread across the timeline like a gantt with elapsed time between them of 5 seconds, or
2. I see all 5 actions starting at the left of the timeline

I cannot work out what causes it to display as either 1 or 2.

/c

[Jan Honza Odvarko]

On Mar 13, 5:56 pm, colin.ro...@enverian.com wrote:
> Thanks Honza,
> Perhaps I can clarify.
>
> If I perform the same operation 5 times on a page manually at 5 seconds
> intervals I see either one of two things:
>
> 1. I see the 5 operations spread across the timeline like a gantt with
> elapsed time between them of 5 seconds, or
> 2. I see all 5 actions starting at the left of the timeline
>
> I cannot work out what causes it to display as either 1 or 2.

Sounds like #2 should always be the case.
Any chance I could try your page on my machine?

Honza

[colin...@enverian.com]

I am using against our Test and Dev machines behind our firewall at present. I will see whether there is a way to let you have a look.

I was thinking as to whether this may be the problem.

I am using 2 browser tabs one with our Test application and the second with our Dev application. I am flicking between the two and looking at the timeline for both.

Would there be any issue or conflict between the two or does Firebug support this multitab scenario?

BTW I can force the waterfall mode by setting the variable to 0 as you indicated.

/c

[Jan Honza Odvarko]

> Would there be any issue or conflict between the two or does Firebug support this multitab scenario?

multitab scenario should work, but yes it could be perhaps the problem..
Honza

[colin...@enverian.com]

I will try it with one tab only for a while and see does it make it more deterministic.

Thanks,
/c