Decide what to do with the Prototype Kit Task List plugin

[owenatgov]

What

With the new Task List component going out in 5.0, we should decide if we want to continue supporting the prototype kit task list plugin.

Why

This plugin predates the Task List component and is currently the primary method for reusing a Task List for government teams. However it's been noted that this plugin is currently difficult to support and behind on versions of the Task List being used in government presently, including the version that will be going into 5.0
.

Who needs to work on this

TBD

Who needs to review this

TBD

Done when

• Decide if we should keep the plugin or not
• Document decision and reasoning
• Outline next steps with the prototype kit team

[frankieroberto]

I think there’s probably 2 options for this:

1. update the template in the task-list-plugin to use the new component, and also add a (peer?) dependency on govuk-frontend being v5+
2. retire the task-list-plugin and add a new task list pattern template to govuk-prototype-kit-common-templates instead, alongside the templates for check-answers, etc

Any thoughts @nataliecarey?

[nataliecarey]

The current plugin that's owned by the Prototype Kit team isn't the latest implementation and we're not really the right people to be bringing it up-to-date. If there's a need for it still to exist I'd advocate for us to pass the project over to the person/people/team who are in the best position to do the update.

[frankieroberto]

I'd be happy to help bring it up to date (it wouldn't take long at all), but do you think it'd be better to update the existing stand-alone plugin or move it to the common-templates one?

(once v5 has been released there will be no need for any custom CSS at all any more, it'll just be a simple template using components from govuk-frontend)

[colinrotherham]

Just linking commit alphagov/govuk-prototype-kit@17321cb

Shows Task List (and other files) still using $legacy parameters which might be helpful

[frankieroberto]

Having considered this a bit, I think it'd be better to add the Task List pattern (using the new component) to the existing common-templates plugin and then deprecate the current task list plugin.

@nataliecarey @colinrotherham would you agree with that?

[frankieroberto]

Ok I've opened draft PRs:

• Add the task list template to the common-templates plugin
• Deprecate the task list plugin

[colinrotherham]

Thanks @frankieroberto

Design System wise, if you give your guidance branch a rebase you'll see these lines update:
x-govuk/govuk-design-system/blob/task-list-component/src/patterns/task-list-pages/index.md

As we currently link to the Task list plugin repo that we suggest is deprecated on:
https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/task-list-pages/

There’s a coded example of a task list page in the GOV.UK Prototype Kit. To use the example, get the following code from the Prototype Kit repository on GitHub:

HTML from the task list page’s HTML file
custom styles from the task list page’s SCSS file

Just adding this here so we remember to swap the link with common-templates

See what @nataliecarey thinks though for Prototype Kit related things

[frankieroberto]

@colinrotherham:

As we currently link to the Task list plugin repo that we suggest is deprecated on: https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/task-list-pages/

Just adding this here so we remember to swap the link with common-templates

In the proposed new guidance for the task list pattern I've already removed the link to the prototype kit plugin altogether.

I'm not sure it’s worth linking to common-templates instead, as the HTML and Nunjucks code for the pattern is already on the page, so people can copy-and-paste it instead?

We could link to the common-templates plugin as well - but we don't currently do that for other patterns which have a template in common-templates, like the check your answers page?

[colinrotherham]

Cheers. Let's keep it removed then but ask that question on the PR, can always do it another day

[stevenjmesser]

@frankieroberto's PR has deprecated the Task List plugin, so I think we can archive the repo now. I'll write a separate issue for that.