Forms Run-time Diagnostics (FRD), Tracing And Logging For Forms In Oracle Applications/EBS 

Release 12 (12.1x and 12.2) now includes Oracle Application Server (OracleAS) 10g 10.1.2 as the foundation for Forms, Reports, and C code. This replaces the 8.0.6-based   ORACLE_HOME that 9iAS 1.0.2.2 provides today in Release 11i.

The Forms Runtime Diagnostic (FRD) is a method for capturing all events that occur in a form session and writing a file with the details of those events. There is overhead in writing this file, so you should only use this for the purposes of development and debugging

When a form is run with FRD enabled, a combination of external user-application interactions and internal Forms processing events are written in chronological order to a log on the file system.

Activating Forms Runtime Diagnostics (FRD)

Forms Runtime Diagnostics (FRD) can be enabled /activated in one of the following ways:

Option 1: Obtain FRD Trace Using Profile Options
Option 2: Obtain FRD Trace Using Appsweb.cfg

Option 1: Obtain FRD Trace Using Profile Options

When accessing Applications through the 'Home Page' (the page resultant after successful login)  there is no way to pass command line parameters such as record=all, etc. for the duration of a single session. This method enables users to run FRD tracing through the 'Home Page' by using the profile option 'ICX: Forms Launcher'. 

To start tracing in this way, modify Profile Option 'ICX: Forms Launcher' at USER level to include the Forms parameters required for FRD logging:

Note: 
* If the 'ICX: Forms Launcher' profile option is not updatable at the USER level, then you may need to access 'Application Developer' to set the option 'Updatable' for the profile 'ICX_FORMS_LAUNCHER' 
Step 1: Set the profile option 'ICX: Forms Launcher' at user level to same as site value
E.g. copy the site level value  for profile option 'ICX: Forms Launcher'  and paste it in user level field so as to set it at the user level 

Step 2: Append the user value of ICX: Forms Launcher with the Forms parameters for FRD  i.e  '?record=collect' 

http://hostname.domain:port/forms/frmservlet?record=collect

Step 3: Save this change at the USER level. 
Step 4: For trace file details and location
The FRD log file will be written  in the directory pointed by environment variable $FORMS_TRACE_DIR. By default, the trace file with name collect_<pid> gets written in $FORMS_TRACE_DIR , where <pid> is the process identifier.This is a simple text file and can be viewed directly

Option 2: Obtain FRD Trace Using Appsweb.cfg

When accessing Applications through the 'Home Page' (the page resultant after successful login)  there is no way to pass command line parameters such as record=forms/all, etc. for the duration of a single session. It is also possible to obtain FRD trace by  using Appsweb.cfg file.

To start tracing in this way, please refer to the steps below:

Step 1: Edit the appsweb.cfg file pointed by environment variable "FORMS_WEB_CONFIG_FILE"

Step 2: Forms parameters for FRD can be set in appsweb.cfg file in one of the following ways :

Look for  "record=" parameter after the 'ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC PARAMETERS' section  and set it to collect  as shown below.
Once done login into Oracle Applications and launch forms via self-service. 

Extracts from appsweb.cfg file : 

# Sub argument for otherparams 
record=collect

In R12, the FRD log file will be written in the directory pointed by environment variable $FORMS_TRACE_DIR and one can specify the log filename with '.log'extension in one of the following ways: 

1. In appsweb.cfg:

Look for "log=" parameter after the 'ENVIRONMENT SPECIFIC PARAMETERS' section and set it with name that you want the trace file to be created with. 

E.g 

log=user1.log 

2. Using +log directive in the URL used to set the frd trace via profile options or in ad hoc way

E.g 

http://hostname.domain:port/forms/frmservlet?record=collect+log=user1.log