![]() ![]() I would like to thank Peter again for introducing me to WireframeSketcher and providing a free license key, and I hope this blog post plays a part in providing more exposure to his excellent tool.WireframeSketcher – an Eclipse Wireframe plugin In case I have not been clear, I really like WireframeSketcher! For those of us that need to both design and develop applications the integrated nature of the plugin both enhances your productivity and simplifies workflow. WireframeSketcher is an excellent mockup and wireframe tool, and I definitely recommend giving it a try, especially if you live inside the Eclipse IDE. I should be clear, however, that these criticisms are relatively minor and have not prevented me from using WireframeSketcher effectively. Reuse of assets between projects is not addressed. Personally I would prefer a customizable location for these assets to suit the variety of ways Eclipse may be used. Assets require a specifically named and located folder in your project structure. WireframeSketcher does not have as many out-of-the-box widgets in the palette as some other tools, although this has not caused me an issue yet. Lastly, the assets functionality, which complements the standard palette with images and master screens of your own, could be improved. Using the tool is quick, but I think the time spent trying to find a particular widget in the palette could be reduced. The widget palette could be categorized and easier to navigate. Which is not to say that WireframeSketcher could not be improved. Thirdly, the plugin has been remarkably solid and well behaved, unlike many other Eclipses plugins I have tried. Secondly, Wireframe styles and controls text and data tables using a powerful text markup language that provides a lot of flexibility. These features make WireframeSketcher both easy to use and the equal of other wireframe tools in all the ways that matter to me.Īpart from the benefits from these features and that the integration with Eclipse provides, I will mention three features that surprised and impressed me: Firstly, not only can wireframes be exported to PDF, PNG and to the clipboard, this export can be done as a batch operation. Clickable links can be defined between screens, and boilerplate or common layout can be defined in master screens that is reused across other mockups. A properties panel allows fine-grained control and configuration. Within those Eclipse conventions, WireframeSketcher is like many other wireframing solutions: you drag widgets from a palette onto your canvas. It provides an editor, several views and a perspective for easy switching to wireframe or mockup design. WireframeSketcher is like other full-featured plugins for Eclipse. screen files, making them easy to manage within the same project as your source code and using the same source control. WireframeSketcher saves designs and mockups as individual. Without the need to switch applications I found I was using wireframes much more effectively. Working with wireframes and mockups in your IDE saves time and simplifies workflow. ![]() WireframeSketcher, like Eclipse, is cross-platform, and works just as well on Ubuntu or Mac OSX as it does on Windows. It is available in a standalone application, but really comes into its own as a plugin into your existing Eclipse environment. WireframeSketcher, on the other hand, is built on Eclipse. My Windows license for CS5 would not help me on those platforms, and running additional virtual machines for the purpose simply complicated my workflow and source control.īalsamiq looks like a great tool, and I have heard many good things about it, but it suffers from the same lack of platform support on Ubuntu and is otherwise just another tool to manage and integrate into workflow and source control. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I develop on Ubuntu and Mac OSX. I need something simpler.Īnd then there is the issue of platform support. I had been trying to use Adobe Fireworks CS5 in combination with a course from for this purpose but I found the solution and workflow overkill for a web application designer working on his own projects. In truth, I had been looking around for an easier solution to wireframes and mockups. Peter asked if I was interested in trying out his Eclipse-based wireframe and mockup designer. I was contacted by Peter Severin from WireframeSketcher last month. If you are in need of a capable wireframe and mockup designer for Eclipse, this post will interest you. ![]()
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