lfdebrux
commented
1 year ago The obvious solution is to install the plugins we want previews of, and render the templates from those for v13. However, that does raise some follow-on questions, like what happens when we have v14, do we want to freeze the v13 plugin versions? Which plugins do we want previews of? And it doesn't address the issue of users having different versions of templates in their prototypes.
It feels to me that to find the right way to fix this we might need to join up with the Design System team to check on what the need is. Then we can match that in our service somehow.
ruthhammond
Cause
In the v13 docs, we removed the templates from the website. We did this because the plugin architecture means templates are now decoupled from the version of the kit a user has. They might have different templates, or different versions of the same template, to what we show on the website. As the kit also now has a better built-in way to preview what a page would look like once created from a template, it seemed like there was no need to have the templates viewable on the web.
However, what we didn't realise is that the GOV.UK Design System website links to the template previews on our website, as a way of sharing with their users what an example use of a component or pattern might look like. As a temporary workaround we created a redirect (see #99). The
/docs/templates/*URLs will work as before, just pointing the user to the v12 version.Consequence
While the Design System website links to our templates, we need to keep those pages up. However, with the redirect, any updates to templates included in GOV.UK Prototype Kit version 13 will not be reflected by the previews at prototype-kit.service.gov.uk/docs/templates/*. It's also worth noting that because of the new plugin architecture, the templates on our website might not be the same as a user has available in their prototype. Users should always prefer to go the management pages of their prototype to preview templates.
Impact of debt
Medium
Effort to pay down
High