Understanding a Big and Complicated ASP.NET Web Application

You might not like these kinds of questions, but I rely on the professionalism of StackOverFlow.

I have a very big ASP.NET web application, it contains many projects, a container (father) project, and multip开发者_JAVA百科le module projects. Obviously it's connected to a big SQL Server database as well.

This application doesn't have a specific documentation. Is there a way (special tools, advices...) that would help me in understanding the functionality of the application gradually?

I meant by special tools, those that might be representing the structure of the system in diagrams or so.

I cannot find a way to start with.

Note: I'm using Visual Studio 2010, the application is built using .NET 3.5

Thank you for your opinions.

---

Personally, I usually prefer to start by looking at the database design. Depending on how it was set up, you should be able to create a database diagram which will show you all of the relationships between the tables.

Once you have a grasp of the database design, you should have a basic understanding of what the system is doing, which should give some context to the different processes and work flows throughout the web application.

If the application has a Sitemap, I would examine it throughly, as it should help you to better understand the flow of the application. If available, you should also look at the class diagram to see how the different classes relate to one another.

Without any kind of documentation, you'll probably have to use bits and pieces to understand how the application works. I'm not sure, but there may be some plugins available that can help you with this. Something like CodeRush or Resharper might be helpful. There's also a plugin called GhostDoc that might come in handy too.

Hope this helps.

---

Visual studio 2010 has architectural analysis it can perform on your projects with the ultimate version. This can help you in understand the app, what crosses layers, etc.

See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg465276

http://www.slideshare.net/bgervin/visual-studio-2010-ultimate-architecture-experience-toronto-code-camp-2010-barry-gervin

---

You can have a look at this MSDN page, which will show you how to generate a UML diagram from your codebase. This will give you a rough overview of how things fit together, and what communicates with what (I haven't used this tool so I'm unsure of how much information is provided, or whether it is configurable).

Also, make sure you ask your teammates, or anybody else who has worked on this application before (there have to be a few such people around if it's such a huge project). They should definitely make the time to explain things to you, or at least answer specific questions you have.