3 Getting Started with the HP Caliper GUI

In addition to the command-line interface, HP Caliper supports a full-featured, intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). This chapter describes how to get started using the GUI.

For information on the command-line interface, see Chapter 2 (page 21).

What Is the HP Caliper GUI?

The GUI has the same underlying measurement technology and capabilities as the command-line interface. With the GUI, however, you can dynamically interact with HP Caliper. Using the GUI, you can:

Set up and save specifications for collecting data

Initiate measurement runs

Graphically explore performance data after it has been collected

Manage your collection specifications and performance databases

The HP Caliper GUI and command-line interface are part of the same product; only the user interfaces are different. You can mix-and-match your use of the GUI and the command line. For example, you can make a measurement and graphically explore the collected data with the GUI, then generate a printable text report from the same data with the command line. Or, you can use the command-line HP Caliper within your build script and later explore the performance results using the GUI.

The HP Caliper GUI is an Eclipse RCP application. The GUI is actually a separate program that communicates with the command-line HP Caliper. The GUI can run either natively (locally) on the HP-UX or Linux Integrity server that HP Caliper is running on, or remotely on a Windows x86 or Linux x86 desktop system. The GUI uses the native “look and feel” of the platform it is run on. Although the HP Caliper GUI looks different on different systems, the functionality and operation are identical.

Figure 4 shows an example of what the GUI looks like.

See the following for help in getting started:

“Window Basics” (page 32)

“Making Measurements” (page 39)

“Exploring Performance Data” (page 40)

“Getting Performance Tuning Advice” (page 40)

“Getting Help” (page 41)

“Starting the GUI” (page 41)

Window Basics

The main window of the HP Caliper GUI is divided up into views. A view is a tabbed page that groups related tasks. These views and their icons are:

Projects view

Collect view

Analyze view

Advisor view

Console view

32 Getting Started with the HP Caliper GUI