We know Axure is used by different types of users. This article focuses on developers and what features in Axure, they would find useful and exciting. We have compiled our top 5 Axure features we think were definitely made for developers.
1. Masters
Masters are collections of widgets you can maintain in a single source location and then reuse throughout your file. Common elements that are created as masters include headers, footers, and navigation. Any edits you make to a master will be automatically applied everywhere that master is used. Developers will be most familiar with the concept of a “Master” from CSS and other programming languages.
2. Use of Variables
Though at its core Axure is a prototyping software, more complexity can be added to each prototype with the use of variable. Variables in Axure RP are structures used to store alphanumeric information (the variable’s “value”). Variable values can then be used in a variety of ways—displayed or manipulated using actions, or moved between pages in the HTML output. Variables must be named, and can optionally be given default starting values.
A variable can be used when collecting some information and then pass it to another page to display it as part of a greeting message. There is no hard limit to the number of variables that can be used in a single RP file, but Axure recommends limiting to 25 or fewer (especially when using Internet Explorer to view the prototype)
3. Conditions
“Conditional logic” in Axure RP is a system of rules used in interactions to determine whether a case should fire. This feature is primarily used to determine which case should fire when two or more cases exist on the same event (for example on a button widget’s OnClick event).
“Conditional expressions” are sets of one or more such rules assigned to cases, describing the scenario in which a given case should fire. “Conditions” are individual such rules—single line items in conditional expressions. We usually just refer to conditional expressions as “the conditions” on a case.
Think of conditional expressions and their host cases as having an “if-then” relationship: if the conditions are met,then the case’s actions will be executed.
4. Maths functions
Axure RP can perform math functions on widget text and variable values. This is useful when prototyping a design with a computational component, like a shopping cart, shipping calculator, scheduling app, or advanced animation.
Axure RP also gives you access to a large number of other types of functions, like string functions and date functions, borrowed from JavaScript. Examples of these include “length”, which returns the number of characters of text on a widget or in a variable value; “toLowerCase”, which converts widget or variable text to all lowercase letters; “toFixed”, which takes a widget or variable value and rounds it to a given number of decimal places (good for working with currency); and “getDate”, which can return a specified date (e.g. today’s or tomorrow’s).
5. Adaptive views
A no-brainer, “Adaptive views” are used when designing for multiple screen sizes. An adaptive view is a version of a page designed for a specific screen size. Changes to a widget or page property can affect one view, several views, or all of a page’s views. Given how much testing developers do around screen size and various sized displays, this a great feature that mirrors that workflow.
