Updating the kit - issues with component imports

[edwardhorsford]

On the cross gov slack @marthaboggins raised an issue where the charcterCount wasn't working - it looks like this was a combination of updating to the latest frontend, but the kit referencing the old component at old path. The docs also didn't make clear what things were using what versions and only worked for certain versions.

I see a few issues which wouldn't be too hard to fix:

• The kit update docs don't tell you you need to update layout.html to reference the new location.
• If you’ve got your own changes in layout.html (not unlikely), you'd have to merge those with the new components as they’re manually added.

Suggestion:

We've long had the aim that stuff in app should be user specific - but in this case the components need to be manually added. Copying the app folder from an old prototype to a new one won't work.

I'd suggest that the individual macro imports for all gov.uk components should be done via separate include file. That way if the kit gets updated and macros are added, that include file can be automatically updated rather than manually adding the items in layout.html.

[edwardhorsford]

Suggesting something like this, where we reference the macros, but don't actually define them in layout.html

[NickColley]

This spike is somewhat related: alphagov/govuk-frontend#1436

[edwardhorsford]

@NickColley yeah, that seems similar.

Presumably less risky / easier to do if just for the kit? Essentially just abstracting out the other macro includes to a file outside of /app

[NickColley]

Yes it should be done in the kit first, just posting for reference.

[joelanman]

closing in favour of #967