Add settings page

[nataliecarey]

What

At the moment if a user wants to change settings they have to do so in config.json. As we're adding opt-in support for Markdown we've got an opportunity to make settings more visible and easier to set.

Why

As we add more settings it would be good to give the user a simple way to use them. Having a settings page means that we can include descriptions of what the settings mean etc. and save them from having to touch config.json.

Who needs to work on this

• Designer
• Developer

Who needs to review this

• Designer
• Developer

Done when

• [ ] We know what settings we want to keep/expose
• [ ] Design for settings
• [ ] Design is tested with users
• [ ] The settings page exists
• [ ] The Service name can be set in the settings page

Other

Related:

https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-prototype-kit/issues/470

[joelanman]

Some thoughts on this:

Maybe Settings could be what we were previously discussing as Globals?

Maybe an api could be:

Backend

govukPrototypeKit.settings['serviceName']

Frontend

{{ settings['serviceName'] }}

We need to keep an eye on whether people understand changes in the UI need to be committed to Git separately.

JSON supports arrays, objects and nesting - it's very hard to support these in a GUI

[joelanman]

port might be a good one to cover

[joelanman]

more thoughts from recent chat:

• it might be best to keep Settings to only a known list of names and values we control
• separately have Globals for users to customise. The core Globals file could be limited to name/value pairs so it could be edited via a GUI, with the option to load in json files for more complex data
• I think serviceName would be best in Globals, as serviceName should be available throughout the front and back end of a prototype (I don't think theres a user need for Settings to be available everywhere like that)

[tomyems]

It'd be good for plugins to be able to have settings editable in the UI to control their behaviour too.