Extract Axure Data

Extract structured data from Axure prototypes for page reconstruction, content analysis, or design review. The script handles dependency installation automatically — just point it at a URL.

When to use this

• User shares an Axure prototype URL and wants to extract or rebuild it
• User asks to clone, reconstruct, or analyze a wireframe/prototype
• User mentions AxShare, Axure Cloud, or prototype URLs with start.html#p= or start.html?id=...&p=...
• User wants design tokens, screenshots, or interaction data from a prototype

How it works

Axure stores page data in static JS files (data/document.js, files/{page}/data.js). The script parses these directly in Node.js without needing a browser — this is fast and works for sitemap, interactions, and annotations. Screenshots and design tokens require rendering, so Playwright launches a Chromium instance for those. For Axure preview URLs that route through start.html?id=...&p=..., the script first resolves the rendered frame URL so page data, screenshots, and text are extracted from the correct page resource directory.

Quick start

Run the extraction script from scripts/extract.mjs relative to this skill directory.

# Basic extraction — screenshot + design tokens (default)
node scripts/extract.mjs <AXURE_URL> --all

# Full extraction — add interactions, annotations, page text
node scripts/extract.mjs <AXURE_URL> --all --advanced

# Specific pages only
node scripts/extract.mjs <AXURE_URL> --pages login,dashboard

First run auto-installs Playwright + Chromium to ~/.cache/axure-extractor/. This takes 1-2 minutes and happens once.

Parameters

Flag	What it does	Default
<url>	Axure prototype URL (required)	—
--all	Process all pages	first page only
--advanced	Add interactions, annotations, page text	off
-o DIR	Output directory	./axure-export
--pages P1,P2	Process only named pages	—
--no-screenshot	Skip screenshots	screenshots on
--no-headless	Show browser window	headless
--connect-cdp URL	Attach to running Chrome (for auth)	—
--verbose	Detailed logging	off

Output structure

axure-export/
├── sitemap.json           # Page tree and hierarchy (always produced)
└── pages/{pageName}/
    ├── screenshot.png      # Page screenshot
    ├── theme.json          # Design tokens (colors, fonts, spacing, radii)
    ├── data.json           # Page metadata and diagram        (--advanced)
    ├── notes.json          # Component annotations            (--advanced)
    ├── interactions.json   # Event map (clicks, navigations)  (--advanced)
    └── content.md          # Rendered page text as Markdown   (--advanced)

Recommended workflow: page reconstruction

When the goal is to rebuild an Axure prototype as a real web page, use a two-step approach. The reason for splitting is that screenshots + theme tokens are enough for ~80% visual fidelity, and the additional data only helps when fine-tuning details — so extracting everything upfront wastes time if the basic result is already good.

Step 1 — Basic extraction:

node scripts/extract.mjs <URL> --pages <target>

Use screenshot.png as the visual reference and theme.json for exact colors, fonts, and spacing. Build the page.

Step 2 — Refine if needed:

node scripts/extract.mjs <URL> --pages <target> --advanced

If interactions are missing or annotations are wrong, the additional files (interactions.json, notes.json, content.md) provide the detail to fix them.

Authenticated prototypes

Some Axure prototypes require login (AxShare, corporate SSO). Two approaches:

Connect to an existing Chrome session (recommended — reuses cookies):

macOS:

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

Windows:

start chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

Then log in via that Chrome window and run:

node scripts/extract.mjs <URL> --all --connect-cdp http://localhost:9222

Show the browser window (manual login during extraction):

node scripts/extract.mjs <URL> --all --no-headless

Dependency installation

The script auto-installs on first run. If it fails:

# Manual install
cd ~/.cache/axure-extractor   # macOS/Linux
# or: cd %USERPROFILE%\.cache\axure-extractor   (Windows)

npm install playwright
npx playwright install chromium

# If Chromium download is slow (e.g. behind GFW):
PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST=https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/playwright npx playwright install chromium

If Playwright can't be installed at all, the script degrades gracefully — it still extracts sitemap, page data, annotations, and interactions (everything that doesn't need a browser), but skips screenshots and theme tokens.

Output data formats

theme.json

Design system tokens extracted from computed styles:

{
  "colors": {
    "background": [{"value": "rgb(255,255,255)", "count": 42, "tags": ["div"]}],
    "text": [{"value": "rgb(51,51,51)", "count": 28, "tags": ["p","span"]}],
    "border": [{"value": "rgb(221,221,221)", "count": 12}]
  },
  "typography": {
    "families": [{"value": "\"PingFang SC\", sans-serif", "count": 56}],
    "textStyles": [{"size": "14px", "lineHeight": "22px", "weight": "400", "count": 20}]
  },
  "spacing": [{"value": "16px", "count": 15}],
  "radius": [{"value": "4px", "count": 8}]
}

notes.json

Component annotations authored in Axure:

{
  "page": {"description": "User login page"},
  "id-username-input": {"description": "Username field", "placeholder": "Enter username"},
  "id-submit-btn": {"description": "Login button", "action": "Submit form"}
}

interactions.json

Event mappings defined in Axure's interaction designer:

{
  "onClick": {"targetPage": "dashboard", "action": "navigate"}
}

Playwright 查缺补漏

导出数据基于静态 JS 解析和快照采集，某些动态内容（交互状态、条件面板、动态面板切换等）可能不完整。可使用 Playwright CLI 回到原型页面补充采集。

# 打开 Axure 原型
playwright-cli open <AXURE_URL>
playwright-cli snapshot

# 点击交互元素查看动态面板切换
playwright-cli click e12
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=panel-state-2.png

# 获取元素的精确样式
playwright-cli eval "el => getComputedStyle(el).cssText" e5

playwright-cli close

完整命令参考: Playwright CLI 官方技能文档

典型补充场景

场景	Playwright 做什么
动态面板状态	点击触发切换后截图
条件显示/隐藏	触发条件后采集 DOM
交互动画	录制交互过程
需要登录的原型	复用已登录的 Chrome 会话
Axure 母版内容	进入页面后完整采集

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
HTTP 404: .../data/document.js	URL isn't an Axure prototype, or wrong base URL
Sitemap 提取失败	Check URL is reachable: curl -I <url>
Screenshots are blank	Page needs longer to render — try --no-headless to watch
Need login	Use --connect-cdp (see Authenticated prototypes above)
Playwright install fails	Manual install, or set PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST for mirror