GOV.UK Frontend for Rails

With the new asset pipeline in Rails 7 this project has little value and users are encouraged to utilise the GOV.UK Frontend with Rails in a way that best suits their own context.

4.6.0 will be the last relase of this gem and this repo will be archived.

Although this gem makes it super easy to add the GOV.UK Frontend to your Rails applications, we would recommend using it as a guide to add the GOV.UK Frontend yourself.

Adds the GOV.UK Frontend for Rails using the asset pipeline.

https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-frontend

This release of the GOV.UK Frontend has breaking changes! Do not update to this version until you have read and understood:

You will not be required to updated any file paths with govuk as we take care of that for you, all others changes will need to be managed:

https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-frontend/releases/tag/v3.0.0

This gem does not include the ie8 version of GOV.UK Frontend, as the service standard no longer requires support for Internet Explorer versions less than 11:

https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/designing-for-different-browsers-and-devices

This gem and its documentation cannot tell you how to use the GOV.UK patterns effectively, see the GOV.UK Design System documentation for that:

https://design-system.service.gov.uk/

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'dxw_govuk_frontend_rails'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Your Rails app will need to have SCSS enabled.

IMPORTANT: You must not use this library without changes if the service you are building is not on GOV.UK. Read and understand the guidance here:

https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/design/making-your-service-look-like-govuk#if-your-service-isnt-on-govuk

If the service you are building does not need to modify or extend the GOV.UK Frontend, all you need to do is import the main SCSS and JavaScript files into your Rails app:

• create a SCSS file in your application:

  app/assets/stylesheets/govuk_frontend_rails.scss

• import the styles into govuk_frontend_rails.scss:

  @import "govuk-frontend-rails";

• import the govuk-frontend-rails.scss file in the comment block in app/assets/stylesheets/application.css or equivalent:

  *= require govuk_frontend_rails

• import the JavaScript in the comment block of app/assets/javascripts/application.js:

  //= require govuk_frontend_rails

• initialise the GOV.UK Frontend either in a .js file or in your application layout:

  window.onload = function() { window.GOVUKFrontend.initAll() };

• update your application markup to use the GOV.UK Frontend class names

We aim to track the latest version of GOV.UK Frontend but we may fall behind. Opening an issue if we are behind on a new release would be helpful, or open a PR to update to the latest release!

When a new version of the GOV.UK Frontend is released:

• make a new branch with the GOV.UK Frontend version number
• set the new version number in package.json and lib/dxw_govuk_frontend_rails/version.rb
• run npm update to get the new release of the GOV.UK Frontend
• run bundle exec rake to compile the new assets
• commit the changes
• tag with the same release number as GOV.UK Frontend
• push the change
• push the tag
• merge your branch
• make a new release of the tag on GitHub
• GitHub actions will build the gem and push to RubyGems