The GOV.UK Design System launched on 22 June 2018

GOV.UK Elements has now been replaced by the GOV.UK Design System. Elements will remain available in case you are currently using it, but is no longer maintained. The Government Digital Service will only carry out major bug fixes and security patches.

The GOV.UK Design System will be updated to ensure the things it contains meet level AA of WCAG 2.1, but Elements will not. Read more about accessibility of the GOV.UK Design System.

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GOV.UK Elements Rails gem

A gem wrapper around govuk_elements that pulls stylesheet and javascript files into a Rails app.

Installing for use in a Rails app

Just include govuk_elements_rails in your Rails application Gemfile:

gem 'govuk_elements_rails'

It automatically attaches itself to your asset path so the static/SCSS files will be available to the asset pipeline.

Dependency on govuk_frontend_toolkit

The gem has a dependency on the govuk_frontend_toolkit gem. So govuk_frontend_toolkit will be installed on bundle install if it is not installed already.

Dependency on govuk_template base HTML styles

The gem assumes you have govuk_template base HTML styles in your SASS. But the govuk_template gem is not a dependency. Either require govuk_template in your Gemfile:

gem 'govuk_template'

or include the following in a Sass file, see Usage section for details:

// Base (unclassed HTML elements)
// These are predefined by govuk_template
// If you're not using govuk_template, uncomment the line below.
// HTML elements, set by the GOV.UK template
@import 'elements/base'

Usage

For detailed information on usage see the govuk_elements README.

Stylesheets usage

At the top of your projects main stylesheet you should use @import rules to include the files that you require.

If you are using the scss format instead of sass you will need to add semicolons and reformat the comments.

// GOV.UK Frontend Toolkit (alphagov/govuk_frontend_toolkit)
@import 'colours'
@import 'font_stack'
@import 'measurements'
@import 'conditionals'
@import 'device-pixels'
@import 'grid_layout'
@import 'typography'
@import 'shims'

@import 'design-patterns/alpha-beta'
@import 'design-patterns/buttons'
@import 'design-patterns/breadcrumbs'

// GOV.UK elements (alphagov/govuk_elements)

// Helper functions and classes
@import "elements/helpers"

// Generic (normalize/reset.css)
@import "elements/reset"

// Base (unclassed HTML elements)
// These are predefined by govuk_template
// If you're not using govuk_template, uncomment the line below.
// @import "elements/govuk-template-base"

// Main content container. Grid layout - rows and column widths
@import "elements/layout"

// Components (chunks of UI)
@import "elements/elements-typography"
@import "elements/buttons"
@import "elements/icons"
@import "elements/lists"
@import "elements/tables"
@import "elements/details"
@import "elements/panels"
@import "elements/forms"
@import "elements/forms/form-multiple-choice"
@import "elements/forms/form-date"
@import "elements/forms/form-validation"
@import "elements/breadcrumbs"
@import "elements/phase-banner"
@import "elements/components"
@import "elements/shame"

For further detailed information on usage see the govuk_elements README.

Javascript usage

In the app/assets/javascripts/application.js file in your Rails project use require rule to include the files for the javascript enhancements you require. For example here are all the requires possible at present:

// from govuk_elements gem
//= require details.polyfill

Javascript from govuk_frontend_toolkit

In the app/assets/javascripts/application.js file in your Rails project use require rule to include javascript from the govuk_frontend_toolkit gem. For example:

// from govuk_frontend_toolkit gem
//= require vendor/polyfills/bind
//= require govuk/selection-buttons

To include all of the govuk javascript, require govuk_toolkit, i.e.

// from govuk_frontend_toolkit gem
//= require vendor/polyfills/bind
//= require govuk_toolkit

See the govuk_frontend_toolkit documentation for details of what javascript is available.

Alternate ways to reuse GOV.UK Elements

There are other alternate ways to include GOV.UK Elements implementations in a Rails project, for example via NPM.

Feel free to use an alternate approach when it's more appropriate for your team.

Making updates to the gem itself

You only need to look at this section if you want to update the gem with changes from the govuk-elements repo.

If you just want to use the gem in your Rails application, don't follow these steps.

If you are working on the gem itself, clone and download submodules like this:

git clone git@github.com:alphagov/govuk_elements_rails.git
cd govuk_elements_rails
git submodule init
git submodule update

To update govuk_elements to a specific tag:

cd govuk_elements
git fetch origin
git describe --tags # shows current tag
git tag -l  # lists available tags
git checkout master
latest_tag=`git describe --abbrev=0 --tags`
echo $latest_tag
git checkout $latest_tag # change to most recent tag
cd ..

Check that the symlinks under vendor/assets still point to the govuk_elements files.

ls -lat vendor/assets/javascripts/
ls -lat vendor/assets/stylesheets/

To add a javascript file to gem, create new symlink to govuk_elements file, like in this example:

cd vendor/assets/javascripts/
ls -l
ln -s ../../../govuk_elements/assets/javascripts/govuk/details.polyfill.js .
ls -l
cd ../../..
git add vendor/javascripts/details.polyfill.js

To create the gem for local testing:

rake clean
rake gemspec
rake gem

If you're happy all's ok, you can create a branch and commit:

branch_name="update-$latest_tag"
echo $branch_name
git branch $branch_name
git checkout $branch_name
git push -u origin $branch_name

git add govuk_elements_rails.gemspec
git add govuk_elements

commit_msg="Upgrade to govuk_elements $latest_tag"
commit_msg2="See govuk_elements $latest_tag changelog for details:"
commit_msg3="https://github.com/alphagov/govuk_elements/blob/$latest_tag/packages/govuk-elements-sass/CHANGELOG.md"

echo $commit_msg
echo $commit_msg2
echo $commit_msg3

git commit -m "$commit_msg" -m "$commit_msg2" -m "$commit_msg3"
git push

Create a new pull request for the release:

open "https://github.com/alphagov/govuk_elements_rails/compare/master...$branch_name"

To tag and publish the gem to rubygems.org:

rake publish

If you are installing from git for testing, ensure you enable submodules in your Gemfile require like so:

gem 'govuk_elements_rails', git: "https://github.com/alphagov/govuk_elements_rails.git", submodules: true

Feedback

Please provide feedback via GitHub issues.