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Several problems with artboard names in prototypes being re-written or not being replaced with updates.

Adam Bies

I don't know to explain it any better than this...

However there are several issues with regard to organizing artboards in an InVision prototype. I am just going to list out the ones which have been most frustrating over the last several months. These are all issues I've encountered over and over — and today finally got irritated enough to create a post.

1. There's no way to see a long artboard name across the entire InVision user interface. Regardless of whether you use the "list" or "tile" view of the artboards within your prototype, the character limit is too low for any kind of organization of the boards associated with a larger app. For example an artboard named "user-preferences-account-balance-modal" is going to get cut off. The only way to make it usable is to be conscious of this and try to use concise naming.

2. InVision randomly decided what to capitalize and what to NOT capitalize in my artboard titles. If I have an artboard with all lower case text, inVision randomly decides to capitalize every word BUT the first word of my artboard name. Thanks guys, but us designers are perfectly fine with capitalizing and naming our artboards as we see fit — we would just like to see the same capitalization and case applied to our uploaded boards as we use in Sketch.

3. For no reason I can discern, sometimes a change to an EXISTING artboard results in a NEW ARTBOARD being created when I sync with InVision. This happens A LOT. Whenever it happens, there is no POSSIBLE WAY AT ALL to re-associate the "old" artboard in Invision back with it's existing artboard in Sketch. The ONLY way to fix the issue is to delete the "old" one and then re-draw all of the hotspots and anything that was previously applied to the artboard completely over again. I also lose the history associated with that artboard. This one issue infuriates me more than any other issue I encounter with regard to artboard organization with InVision and has wasted countless hours of my time.

4. The whole UI around organizing and grouping artboards in the Invision web app are horrible. Having to click in an invisible space to add a new section results in A. I can't find the spot to click when I actually WANT to add a new section — and B. I can't count the number of times I've added a new section by mistake because I clicked in the wrong space. Then, any new artboards I create end up getting dropped into this new section, sometimes even after deleting it. The drag and drop to re-organize the order of pages is extremely clunky and difficult to deal with, especially if you need to move a large number of artboards around.

5. Sometimes creating a new artboard with the same name as an existing artboard replaces the existing artboard with the contents of this new one. That would be the behavior I expect. If that were ALWAYS the behavior I see then it would resolve issue #3. However there are times when all synchronization is lost and I end up having to delete and re-upload artboards, re-create hotspots, fixed headers and footers, and other properties of these artboards and re-link them back into their respective workflows because the linkages between them are completely broken.

6. It would be good if there was some sort of GRACEFUL way of being able to change the name of an artboard either in Sketch or InVision without it resulting in absolute chaos like this. Sometimes I can change the name in InVision, and copy-paste the name change back to my artboard in Sketch. When this works, it's fine. But there are times where it REFUSES to work and the artboards become out of sync and the only way to resolve the issue is to delete and re-sync art boards which causes a lot of re-work in the app side.


I just find myself wasting an obscene amount of time dealing with out of sync artboards — especially today when I ran into a changed artboard that now wants to upload as a brand new artboard instead of replacing the one that's been sitting there with the exact same name for weeks. Not to mention losing the history behind it, which serves quite useful a lot of times when I have to explain why I made a change or went a certain direction with something while presenting to a group.

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Comments

19 comments

Date Votes
  • Beth Vanderkolk

    Hey Adam,

    I wanted to hop on here and apologize for the delay in a reply! The team is at a company offsite but we're actively talking about your thread and syncing up with the product manager in the next few days for some concrete feedback. I also wanted to tell you that we appreciate how detailed your feedback is- it's awesome to get this sort of insight into how your workflow is impacted. I know it takes time for you to stop your work and come here to write it all out, and that is much appreciated! I will circle back here really soon. Thanks for hanging tight in the meantime.

    Beth
    Community Manager

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  • Colin Murphy
    • Edited

    Hi Adam,

    As Beth mentioned, thank you for taking the time to write up your feedback.  Sorry that this is frustrating.

    We'll look into a fix for the capitalization issue.  For long artboard names the full version will be displayed upon mouseover, but I understand this doesn't help quickly scan a long list.  This is helpful feedback as we're currently tweaking this experience.  We're also working to improve the UX around organizing, drag & drop and sections.  I would love to show you some concepts.  Finally, I can't seem to replicate the issue with renaming artboards and have them create new/duplicates.  For both of these reasons, I'd love to setup a time to chat with you - I'll reach out directly via email.

    Thanks,

    Colin

    Product Manager

    Craft & Web Prototyping

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  • Adam Bies

    So sad that in October of 2019 I STILL can't rename an artboard and have it continue to sync.

    I have to rename dozens of artboards today and of course I will have to re-draw ALL of the hotspots or find some clumsy way to port those over, because your hotspot creation and sync is still a complete hot mess.

    I've gotten sick enough of experience these huge time sucking bugs with InVision over and over — with threads on the support forum going back several years with no action taken, along with the fact EVERY designer I ever talk to about these products HATES THEM with the same passion I do for the same exact reasons. These aren't just some crybaby designer who's a .0001% use case scenario, but rather EVERY designer I ever talk to about the product asking them what they don't like about it.

    We've decided to try out Figma now because word on the street is they aren't riddled with all of these terrible usability issues.

    1
  • Adam Bies

    So absolutely LIVID right now that after trying to change artboard names in sketch and no longer being able to sync those with the same panels in InVision — you lose the history, comments, AND hotspots every time this happens. Now I get to deal with the mess of trying to rename dozens of artboards which have now all lost their comments, history, etc etc turning a large prototype into a big mess.

    The hours I am losing spending so much ridiculous time trying to do the following things with InVision would be better spent looking for a new app at this point.

    Hot spots and that whole aspect of InVision is a hot mess

    You can basically never re-name ANYTHING without risking all of the syncing being broken as well.

    You can't have a button with a hover state AND a link to another panel without completely ridiculous workarounds that never really work well

    You have to deal with a clumsy UX of a web interface where you can almost never see complete artboard names, having to move the mouse around in empty space to reveal "mystery meat" user interface buttons like "add new section", etc.

    There are great aspects of InVision as a whole and I've been using it for a few years but the glaring basic core bugs like this which are constantly ignored in favor of "new features! new features! new features!" product management mentality have finally driven me out.

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  • Gregory Stein

    Has there been any progress in finding a solution to the OPs #3 - regarding syncing issues?

    I’ve run into issues where sometimes pages will no longer sync, instead a new page will be created in invision. As Adam stated,  this becomes a big issue when hotspots/linkage are in place, and when annotations/commentary history is needed for a particular page. 

    Is there a way to manually select which artboard is tied to which screen in inVision? Or any other solution to fix the broken syncing?

     

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  • Shaina Torgerson

    Hi Gregory,

    Thanks for taking the time to also provide your feedback on this post. When you change the name of an artboard in Sketch, Craft Sync should continue to associate that artboard to the original screen. In order to determine why you're running into issues, our Support team will need some additional information including your Sketch file and a screen recording of your workflow. That being said, I will open a ticket on your behalf requesting this information so on of our Support agents can observe what your current process and advise further. 

    For reference, here are a couple of help articles I think may be relevant to you here: 

    • This Replacing Screens help article shows how to replace an old version of your screen and should provide some more insight about how Craft Sync interacts with Sketch in this regard. 
    •  This other help article provides some details of how renamed screens in Sketch are handled by Craft. 

    Still, I'd like to have our Support team take a closer look at this for you. Before sending this over to them, can you please provide some additional details?:

    1. A screenshot of your "About this Mac" overview
    2. The version of Sketch that you're using
    3. The version of Craft Manager that you're running
    4. A screencast or screenshot(s) displaying the issues you're running into with syncing

    Look forward to hearing from you,

    Shaina

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  • Adam Bies

    LMFAO...

     

    This reply to this post showed up in my inbox today, 2 hours after having the exact same issue as Gregory yesterday. I spent 12 hours trying to rename a series of art boards instead of the 10 minutes that task should require. I get the same canned responses from InVision saying that they need to know the specifics, etc.

    I try telling them I've used InVision for over 5 years, at 5 different companies, with multiple user accounts, on several computers. And this issue has been persistent and terrible in every single experience. I DREAD IT if I ever need to change the name of an artboard because I know I am in for a total s#!+ show when it should be something I can do in 10 seconds.

    I told the last person who gave me a canned response that everyone who uses the platform experiences this bug, and then 2 hours later someone posts to this thread saying they experience the exact same bug.

     

    Software companies don't care anymore. "MVP" used to mean "Most Valuable Player" but now it stands for "Minimum Viable Product" and this is the kind of stuff we end up with.

    3
  • Adam Bies

    Also,

    Greg, to be somewhat constructive here, I do have a workaround that will usually fix the broken syncing but it's completely absurd.

    When it breaks you need to right-click on the file name from the list view in InVision. Select the file name prior to @2x.png (or before .png if they are 1:1 images).

    Rename the artboard with that as the title, rename your title in sketch to match. Try and sync.

    It usually will fix the broken synchronization.

     

    THEN you have to go BACK to InVision and without doing ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL WHATSOEVER, you have to then change the art board title to what you want it to be, select all, copy, and hit enter. THEN go back to Sketch and paste that title so they once again match. Then perform the sync.

     

    In most cases the new art board name will stick and the linkage will remain in tact. If it doesn't repeating those steps might work.

    So, when it takes 15 minutes to change an art board name because of this nonsense, and you need to change 20 artboards in a large prototype of a complex app, you're looking at 5 hours of work.

     

    I hope you have some good music or podcasts to listen to because your life is going to TOTALLY SUCK that day.

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  • Gregory Stein

    Wow, thanks for replying Adam and Shaina!

    While I have experienced the broken sync issue in regards to page names changing (and Adam, I appreciate your crazy workaround). Buuuut, I’m also experiencing it on pages that have the original / same name.

    Being that the original post was from over a year ago, I’m guessing that there’s no official way to control which sketch artboard syncs to which page in inVision?

    Shaina - here are the details you requested. I can follow up separately with a workflow screencast but in the meantime here are the other details. Again, I’m trying to sync sketch artbobards/inVision screens that have the same/original name (and rather than syncing, new pages are appearing in inVision).

    Craft v1.0.91 (169)
    Sync + Prototype 2.3.148
    Sketch v57.1

    I realize that I’m not on the latest software. However, I began my project early last year and used the Anima plugin to build out 100s of components and page layouts. Since then, the newer sketch smart layout features have caused many conflicts with Anima so I found that Sketch v57.1 is the last release that works well with Anima. Also, given that inVision announced it’s no longer supporting Anima, I’m afraid to update my craft/sync+prototype.

    One other piece of information that may help you get to the root of the problem. I’m collaborating with other designers. We’re all using sketch 57.1 in order to maintain the use of Anima, but I believe they may be on different/more recent releases of craft/sync+prototype.

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  • Adam Bies

    I've had the same problem with artboards losing their connection even though the names match. Following the same ridiculous steps seems to fix the issue for me. Every now and then I psh a page up (like you said) and notice the panel in InVision never updated. Then I will notice it crammed a new version of it (with the same name) into the prototype instead of updating the original panel.

    I cross my fingers every time I hit that sync button hoping nothing goes wrong.

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  • Mike Siegle

    Hey Gregory, 

    It's Mike from InVision Support here. I'm terribly sorry for all of the troubles you've faced but wanted to thank you for sharing all of these details with us. They've certainly helped us get better understanding of the issues you're having. 

    After looking over your response, I noticed you mentioned using Anima and a different versions of Sketch. Because of that, this might be a separate issue entirely from what Adam has described above. At this point I think it's best we get this in front of our Support Engineers for further investigation. 

    I will be open a ticket on your behalf requesting a few extra details so our Support team can troubleshoot with you internally. Keep your eyes open for a response coming your way here soon! Again, I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you, and hope to get you some clarity on the issues you're facing soon. 

    Thanks so much for your help with this!

    Best,
    Mike

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  • Shaina Torgerson

    Hi Gregory,

    Hope all is well! I just wanted to follow up here in Community to see if you received Mike's follow up ticket via email? We would love to connect with you so that we can further investigate these issues.

    After discussing your comments during our Product Meeting yesterday, our Product and Support teams had some feedback they wanted me to share with you:

    1. The Product Manager expressed interest in connecting with you directly to get a better idea of the steps you're taking when encountering these issues. This added information will help the Product and Engineering teams reach a solution for these types of issues. Does this sound like something you'd be willing to do? If so, I'll connect you through your ticket that Mike has opened for you.
    2. One of our Tier 2 Support agents mentioned that we've received reports of these types of issues with users running the Abstract plugin. Can you please confirm whether or not you're using this plugin?

    Look forward to hearing from you,

    Shaina

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  • Wim
    • Edited

    Hi.

    Just want to join the conversation: this sync update voodoo bothers me as long as I am using invision - btw. I do not use abstract.

    What about a "pro" dialog to not only select the invision prototype, but also the screen itselt - manually. To set it manually and bypass the "I will match this for you" function.

    As we rely on the inspector mode for handover, switching to manual PNG upload is not an option.

    Is there an update to this issue?

    (hope everyone is well, stay safe)

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  • Monika R.

    Hi Wim,

    Thanks for chiming in, hope you're well yourself! Could you please clarify exactly the issue that you personally are running into? If you could please provide us with the replication steps that would be very helpful. 

    In terms of your comment: What about a "pro" dialog to not only select the invision prototype, but also the screen itselt - manually. To set it manually and bypass the "I will match this for you" function. Just so we're on the same page - are you looking to be able to manually select which screen in a published InVision Cloud prototype you would like to potentially replace with the artboard that you're about to sync?

    Look forward to hearing back!

    Monika

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  • Clément Lagneau

    Facing exactly the same issue...

    Some of the screens are updated when some of them are unlinked and duplicated.

    Any update so ?

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  • Mike Siegle

    Hey Clément, 

    Oh no, sorry for the troubles!

    Do you know if your links are created using the "Next screen in series" or "Previous screen in series" options?

    Looking forward to hearing back! 

    Cheers,

    Mike

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  • Eugene Vasin

    Same issues in 2021. I took a .sketch file created and previously pushed by one of my team members, pushed artboards via Craft with the same artboard names, and got new screens in InVision instead of updating the previous ones. Of course, deleting the previous screens and keeping the new ones is a way out, but it requires to:

    1. Abandon previous comments and updates history
    2. Recreate all hotspots
    3. Update all links on all related Jira tickets

    So that sounds crazy, and it would be great to have the solution.

    MacBook Air M1. Sketch Version 73.1 (127209). 

    1
  • Raynor B

    Hi Eugene,

    We're sorry to hear that you're running into an issue here, but thanks for reaching out to our Community.

    I’ll be opening a ticket on your behalf with our Support team so they can dig into this further with you internally. Please keep an eye out for an email from one of our Support agents soon.

    We'll look forward to assisting you via the ticket. 

    Best,
    Raynor

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  • Ali Jensen-Mackinnon
    • Edited

    A simple fix for the problem where a change to a Sketch artboard name creates a new screen in inVision when synced rather than updating the originally linked screen.

    I have read some of the fix comments above and was able to interpret the comment from Adam Bies • March 7, 2020 to determine this reletively simple fix.

    1. Before you update any artboard name in Sketch

    • Select the Artboards you are planning to update
    • Click on the upload function in Craft.
    • Click on the Advanced dropdown link at the bottom of the upload dialogue box.
    • Uncheck the 'Publish only artboards that have been modified' option. This will allow each artboard to be uploaded even though you have not changed it.
    • Synch the artboard(s) you intend to update to your related inVision project to make sure each linked screen updates as expected.
    • Each Project screen linked to one of the uploaded artboards should show it changed 'a few seconds ago'.

    2. If the project screens update in inVision as you expect

    • You can change the artboard names in Sketch and re sync them with with your project again.
    • Each linked project screen will update with the new artboard name as it’s source file.
    • You will need to update the display name of the project screen in inVision manually as usual.

    3. If the project screen does not update in inVision as you expect

    • Go into the list view of your InVision project and right click on the source file name on the screen that is not syncing. This is the file name in in the light font next to the last update time.
    • This is the file name inVision expects the Sketch artboard to be called inorder to sync.
    • Copy the souce file name minus the .png at the end.
    • Rename the linked artboard name in Sketch to this name.
    • Then do step 1 again.

    This issue has frustrated me for ages!

    But this fix has worked for me like a charm.
    I hope this also works for you too.

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