How do you manage change history and compare different versions of a prototype?

rp-7
#1

Hi

I would like to hear other Axure users’ experience, as we are having some challenges when using Axure in our company.

When designing with Axure, we create a prototype consisting of screenshots and flowcharts to illustrate the look, feel and behavior of the App. These can get very large and is updated often. When new versions is released, we miss a good way of indicating to others (mainly SW) what has been changed between two versions of the prototype. Not just which pages that are updated, but also which parts of a page (screen or flow) that is updated.

What we have tried so far:
Manual creation of change log: Requires much work to maintain and it is hard in text to describe exactly how a flow or screen is changed.
Export to Word and use Word compare: Not good to show which parts of a page that is updated.

We would prefer a tool that could highlight changes visually, but have not been able to find any.

So, what are you using? Or how do you communicate changes to your team?

#2

Hi Morten,

Thanks for starting this thread. As you may know, there currently isn’t a feature in Axure RP to track or highlight changes between one generated prototype to the next. But we’ll certainly evaluate whether this is something we could add.

It seems a handful of forum members also use a tracking tool called BugHerd, which may provide sufficient visual feedback that you’re looking for. You may have seen this mentioned here and there, and one of our veteran members light_forger once posted this useful link about it, for reference:

Stay up to date with the latest BugHerd news | Blog

I’m curious how other members weigh in nonetheless!

Alex

#3

I cam across this thread, wanting to do the same. I have inherited two large files, and am having a frustrating time working out where the changes are. So I’ll add my vote for this to be a future enhancement. Thanks.

#4

Yes, I would love to see this feature. This is a huge pain point with Axure that we are experiencing.

#5

I sometimes use the notes properties. Add a custom field like ‘Version’ and put a number in it.
When I make changes, I can increment the version for widgets that have been chnaged in some way and add comments in the notes / description field.
Can also make a quick note of the current version in the page notes for reference.
Can work well in some prototypes with word/csv export as a backup as it gives a list of all widgets and their version is there along with notes allowing devs to quickly locate the changes.

But it’s far from an ideal solution. Proper audit trail/change tracking and comparison would save a great deal of time!

#6

Hi,

is Axure doing any work on coming up with a way to handle this is in the product? I am having to provide multiple versions for Dev and Product as the two are not in sync in terms of planning. For Product I am designing one set that is looking into the future, a subset of that work is being given to Dev and QA for the current sprint. I am not sure if this is solvable, but at least having some sort of change history would help!

#7

I am having the same issue. Mostly the first prototype I provide to DEV is not final. So I need to change something. If I need to track my history, I have 2 options.

  1. Duplicate pages. This is easy but it will not work for complex high fidelity prototype with many pages, actions and so on.
    2 Duplicate whole file…
#8

I’ll add my voice to this. I’d really like this to be easier too.

If, for example, the .rp file format were text-based, I’d have a way of using commonly available diff tools to compare versions.

I do already use git version control with my .rp files, so I do have some level of commenting on what’s changed between different versions, but I still find myself needing to do a diff e.g. it would be really helpful when composing the commit messages.

The lack of this support is a major drawback of Axure for me.