# Documenting an Ignition Program I Didn't Make

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/documenting-an-ignition-program-i-didnt-make/20870>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition79\
**Created:** [November 14, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/documenting-an-ignition-program-i-didnt-make/20870 "2018-11-14T20:51:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/documenting-an-ignition-program-i-didnt-make/20870/1 "2018-11-14T20:51:45Z")

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I started a job that uses Ignition. They already have a mostly complete in house program they use to organize business operations. I am mostly here to fix bugs, and eventually start adding features.

We have zero documentation on this program, its databases or anything of that nature. I’ve started making ERM diagrams and keeping detailed notes on the windows/components/scripts in a heirarchal manner. But I feel like I’m not necessarily doing it right. Does anyone know of sample ignition documentation I can look at or have any pointers for how I should go about doing this? Thanks

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**Author:** ![c.bertulli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@c.bertulli](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/c.bertulli)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 9:46am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/documenting-an-ignition-program-i-didnt-make/20870/2 "2018-11-15T09:46:27Z")

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I don’t know if you are already aware of this but you can **View\>Spotlights\>Scrpiting**. In this way, all the components that have scripts inside will be highlighted.

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**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 2:02pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/documenting-an-ignition-program-i-didnt-make/20870/3 "2018-11-15T14:02:13Z")

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I was not, that is helpful thank you!

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/documenting-an-ignition-program-i-didnt-make/20870/4 "2018-11-15T15:53:13Z")

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You can shortcut reviewing scripts by accessing a window’s entire configuration as XML. The menu item is normally hidden – use shift-right-click on the window in the designer’s navigation tree to expose both export and import of XML. The window does _ **not** _ have to be open.

The format is hard to read, but multiline scripts jump out as they are practically the only content that isn’t wildly indented. /-:

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**Author:** ![MMaynard](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/mmaynard/32/3366_2.png) [@MMaynard](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/MMaynard)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/documenting-an-ignition-program-i-didnt-make/20870/5 "2018-11-15T20:48:53Z")

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Also consider doing inline documentation in scripts as well.  
I love to go into a script that I didn’t author and see comments in the code telling me what the code is doing.  
Inline comments are for developers, outside written documentation is for the IT nerds 😛