So, I join this company. They have a 20 year old very complex Oracle Forms system (11g Forms, 11g DB).
How do you guys get about getting to know a complex Oracle Forms system when you join a new organisation?
One of my methods I used some time ago was to create a temp table and add after IUD triggers to every table. In the triggers I write code to write the trigger name and the backtrace into the temp table. This way when I run a form and do stuff like IUD I can query this temp table and figure out which tables were IUDd into and where the code originated. After all the purpose of every form is to do IUD. You do processing and then finally have to write to tables.
However, this method cannot be done in every place as some do not allow creating triggers for every table like this.
Another method is of course is to just read the code in the form. But this takes lots of time and since there is very little or no comments in code it is difficult to understand what is going on. Another method is debugging Forms but this also is very time consuming.
So, I like to know how you tackle this conundrum. What the methods you have used to get acquainted with a complex Oracle Forms system when you join a new company.
How long does it normally take on average to get to know a new application 'well'?
I would really appreciate to know your own experiences and also any tips, tricks & advice.