I have a java spring GWT web application. I need to use a profiler to view why is a certain function that slow (on server)... After some searching, seems that insight is a good way... tried it and it works... what I did is create a tc server instance (developer edition) with insight and add the project to it. It works.
The problem here is that I use maven plugin "org.codehaus.paranamer", that is a plugin that I use to get function paramater names... It works post-compilation to add a special private field in the class that holds the parameters names.
This is a problem with insight since it seems that it modifies the code too and that it works on the source code not the compiled version in the target folder.
What I can do to make this work? FYI, all I need is profile the app.. not necessarily with insight....
Edit:
I ended up using visualvm... It can help with profiling the app on the cpu level and the memory level... That is the way I can use the common remote profiling mechanism jerry was talking about.
For profile of JAVA apps(including tomcat instances), I strongly recommend the TPTP(Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform). You can read a lot here:
http://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-TPTP-Profiling-Tool/tptpProfilingArticle.html
Especially for TPTP working with tomcat instance:
http://www.deepakgaikwad.net/index.php/2009/02/10/tutorialprofiling-with-tptp-and-tomcat.html
Some of the information in the above article may be outdated, but main workflow is the same.
For commercial profilers, I will recommend yourkit profiler: http://www.yourkit.com/
I don't know if there is a trial edition available now, but years ago, this profile is more user friendly than TPTP.