1. Project Overview

KoTime

Simple, Easy-to-Use Monitoring with Zero Learning Curve

koTime is a lightweight performance analysis tool for Spring Boot projects. It quickly identifies performance bottlenecks by tracking method call chains and their corresponding execution times.

2. Open Source License

Licensed under LGPL-2.1

3. Screenshots

Visualized Display

1. API Call Statistics

Identify the number of APIs requiring optimization by color: red indicates that optimization is needed, while green indicates normal operation.

2. API List Overview

The list displays the execution time of each API. Green indicates that no optimization is needed, while red indicates that the issue requires further investigation.

3. Call Details

Click an API to view its call chain and execution time. Red nodes indicate the components that need optimization.

4. Email Alerts

Email notifications were introduced in v2.2.5. When a method's execution time exceeds the threshold, you can choose to receive an email notification.

5. Thread Management

Thread management was introduced in v2.3.9, allowing you to monitor thread statuses and view thread stack information.

4. Feature Overview

4. Feature Overview

koTime is a lightweight performance analysis tool for Spring Boot projects that quickly identifies performance bottlenecks by tracking method call chains and their corresponding execution times.

• ✅ Real-time method monitoring and execution time statistics

• ✅ Web-based visualization of method call chains for tracking performance bottlenecks

• ✅ System exception tracking with precise method-level identification

• ✅ Email notifications for API timeouts, eliminating the need for real-time monitoring

• ✅ Online hot updates: Update code without restarting the application

• ✅ Thread management: Real-time thread statistics and status monitoring

• ✅ Easy to use with no technical learning curve

• ✅ Simply add the Maven POM dependency, with no code intrusion or additional deployment costs

Project Background

The following content is the author's own account of this open-source project.

Once, a project experienced excessively long response times for certain features. As an experienced developer with years of coding under my belt, my first instinct was obviously to open the browser and find out which API was causing trouble. Then I followed the trail through the network to the Controller layer, the Service layer, and the DAO layer...

Going through each layer one by one, debugging repeatedly, and adding execution time measurements to each method...

After spending an entire morning on this, I had only identified an issue that would take me five minutes to fix. Most of the time was wasted locating the problem, which I simply couldn't accept.

So, as someone who has spent years programming with network-based technologies, I decided to search online for a method call-chain tracing framework that could record the execution details of every API and the runtime duration of each method. This would help me quickly locate problems and save an entire morning or more of troubleshooting. After all, time should be spent solving problems, not finding them, especially when those problems are often caused by my own poorly written code! Surprisingly, I couldn't find a suitable open-source framework that I could use directly (perhaps my search skills need improvement, but of course, I would never admit that!).

For my small project, my requirements were quite simple:

Focus primarily on the API layer or methods, with clear and straightforward results.

Simple and easy to use, with no unnecessary maintenance overhead.

Visualized call chains without excessive stack information (I only care about the code I write. Extra stack information creates a terrible visual experience).

Why Not Use Products Like SkyWalking, Pinpoint, or Arthas?

SkyWalking is an excellent distributed application performance monitoring tool (my respect to the great developer Wu!). It focuses more on issues between distributed services rather than the internal details of individual projects. Another consideration is its appearance...

As for Pinpoint, I've always liked it because I'm particular about visual design. However, its call-chain UI is so densely packed with code across the entire screen that I can no longer find where my own methods are (this is just my personal opinion, so please don't take offense!).

As for Arthas, it can be considered a rich and practical toolbox. You can pull out commands whenever needed to perform various program diagnostics. However, it still requires manual intervention whenever you need to use it (which, honestly, is something I don't want to do every time). Its output also lacks visual polish.

Moreover, for many small and medium-sized enterprises, a monolithic application is all they need. There is no need for additional operations, maintenance, or deployment costs!

5. Tech Stack

koTime is a lightweight performance analysis tool for Spring Boot projects. It quickly identifies performance bottlenecks through method call-chain tracing and execution time monitoring, provides visualized results, and also supports hot code updates and email alerts!

Add the Dependency

Add the following dependency to your pom.xml file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>cn.langpy</groupId>
    <artifactId>ko-time</artifactId>
    <version>2.4.2</version>
  </dependency>
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