GOV.UK Admin Template

Styles, scripts and templates wrapped up in a gem for getting up and running with Bootstrap based backend admin apps.

This gem provides (via a Rails engine):

  • jQuery
  • Bootstrap 3 standard styles and javascript — including HTML5 and respond.js shims necessary for IE <= IE8
  • An admin layout with header and footer
  • A lightweight javascript framework
  • Admin design patterns available from /style-guide (when routes are mounted)
  • CSS helpers and SASS variables for the admin theme
  • GOV.UK user friendly date formats
  • Google Analytics tracking code (Universal Analytics), using the "GOV.UK apps" profile

Apps using this gem include:

Usage

Firstly, include the gem in your Gemfile, pinned to the appropriate version and run bundle:

# Gemfile
gem 'govuk_admin_template', '~> 3.3'

At the top of application.scss include the styles (this provides all the mixins and variables from the gem as well as from bootstrap — bootstrap mixins):

/* application.scss */
@import 'govuk_admin_template';

In application.html.erb after any content blocks you want to include, render the base template:

# views/layouts/application.html.rb
<%= render template: 'layouts/govuk_admin_template' %>

The base template includes:

  • Javascript and non-Javascript classes
  • Mobile friendly viewport
  • Bootstrap and jQuery javascript
  • IE HTML5 and respondjs shims, and HTML classes
  • header HTML
  • footer HTML

You will also need to include your styles and javascripts:

# views/layouts/application.html.rb
<% content_for :head do %>
  <%= stylesheet_link_tag "application", media: "all" %>
  <%= javascript_include_tag 'application' %>
<% end %>

It is recommended that the style guide is also made available within your app at the route /style-guide. Add this to your config/routes.rb file:

# config/routes.rb
if Rails.env.development?
  mount GovukAdminTemplate::Engine, at: "/style-guide"
end

The gem source includes a dummy app configured to behave like an app using the gem. If you have the gem checked out it can be run from the spec\dummy directory using rails s.

For Javascript usage, available modules and writing modules, see the Javascript guide.

Configuration

You can configure the gem with a config block in an initializer:

# config/initializers/govuk_admin_template.rb
GovukAdminTemplate.configure do |c|
  c.app_title = "My Publisher"
  c.show_flash = true
  c.show_signout = true
end

Content blocks

The gem uses nested layouts for customisation.

content_for Description
:app_title Name of your admin application
:app_home_path Path to the home page of your application, defaults to root_path
:content Main content
:head HTML to include in the <head> of your application
:page_title Page title
:navbar_items A set of HTML list items (<li>) forming the primary navigation
:navbar_right Text to the right of the nav bar. Logged in user, sign out link, etc
:footer_top (optional) Footer content before copyright text
:footer_version (optional) Text indicating the release, eg commit SHA
:body_end (optional) Just before the </body> tag
:full_width (optional, boolean) Expand content to edges of screen.
:exclude_analytics (optional, boolean) Don’t use the default Google Analytics snippet and profile.
:navbar (optional) Custom navbar content, overrides default navbar

Example navbar_items:

# views/layouts/application.html.rb
<% content_for :navbar_items do %>
  <li>
    <a href="#">navbar_item</a>
  </li>
<% end %>

Date formats

The gem includes date and time formats which match the recommended style.

# 1 January 2013
date.to_s(:govuk_date)

# 1:15pm, 1 January 2013
time.to_s(:govuk_date)

# 1 Jan 2013
date.to_s(:govuk_date_short)

# 1:15pm, 1 Jan 2013
time.to_s(:govuk_date_short)

# 1:15pm
time.to_s(:govuk_time)

Environment indicators

The gem includes default styles for development, integration and production. This includes a coloured environment label, a coloured strip beneath the main navigation and a coloured favicon. They are based on two variables that are set at deploy time (if they aren’t set no indicator will be shown).

The following should be set within an initializer:

# used for the classname and favicon
GovukAdminTemplate.environment_style = [integration|production|development]

# used for the human readable label
GovukAdminTemplate.environment_label = [Integration|Staging|Production|Development]

Flash messages

Turn on flash messages in the config:

# config/initializers/govuk_admin_template.rb
GovukAdminTemplate.configure do |c|
  c.show_flash = true
end

Use like this:

# app/controllers/my_controller.rb
class MyController < ApplicationController
  def create
    if thing.save
      flash[:success] = "Your thing has been created!"
    else
      flash[:danger] = "Sorry, it did not work."
    end

    redirect_to :back
  end
end

We support :success, :info, :warning and :danger:

Flash types

In Rails 4, you can register your types to allow them to be used as arguments to redirect_to.

# app/controllers/application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  add_flash_types :success, :info, :warning, :danger
end

# Now this works:
redirect_to :back, success: "Well done!"
redirect_to :back, danger: "This didn't work."

Development

Clone the repository and run bundle.

The source files are in the app directory. Unlike other GOVUK frontend gems, there is no compile step. The app directory is included in the gem and hooked in as a Rails engine.

While developing it may be helpful to see how the gem will render. The dummy app at spec/dummy is configured to act like an application using the gem and can be started from that directory using rails s. Changes will show immediately. The tests also run against this app.

The dummy app’s rake tasks have been loaded into the gem’s task list under the namespace dummy_app for convenience.

Running tests

The default rake task runs all tests:

bundle exec rake

Layout and nested layouts are tested using RSpec and Capybara:

bundle exec rake spec

Javascript is tested using Jasmine and the Jasmine gem. Tests can be run either in the browser or on the command line via the dummy app’s tasks:

# browser
bundle exec rake dummy_app:jasmine

# command line
bundle exec rake dummy_app:jasmine:ci

Publishing

Version bumps will automatically update RubyGems.org.