#Play-govuk-demo

This is a simple example of how to make use of govuk_template_play in your play applications.

• For Play 2.1.2 use the Play-212 branch

##Get the templates

First step, download the templates. Here we use git submodules to link to the govuk_template_play repo directly.

git submodule add [email protected]:alphagov/govuk_template_play.git
git submodule init
git submodule update

You can also download the compiled sources as a tar ball from govuk_template_play/releases

##Add the templates to Plays Template Generator

Play uses the property sourceGenerators to know what files should be compiled as templates. To make use of the govuk_template.scala.html file we need to include it in the sourceGenerators property.

Make the following changes to your project definition. This will add a new SettingsKey that refers to our template directory and includes it in the sourceGenerators property.

#####project/Build.scala

val templateKey = SettingKey[File]("template-dir", "Template directory for govuk_template_play")

lazy val main = play.Project(appName, appVersion, appDependencies).settings(
  templateKey in Compile <<= baseDirectory(_ / "govuk_template_play"),
  sourceGenerators in Compile <+= (state, templateKey in Compile, sourceManaged in Compile, templatesTypes, templatesImport) map ScalaTemplates)

##Serve the govuk_template_play assets to the template

In order for the govuk_template.scala.html template to access assets we need to add them to the playAssetsDirectories and serve them off the url /template/*file.

To do this we will create our own AssetBuilder which will keep reverse routing in our own templates cleaner than using the existing route.Assets to serve template assets.

Create the following file: #####app/controllers/Template.scala

package controllers
object Template extends AssetBuilder

Add the following definition to your routes file: #####conf/routes

GET    /template/*file    controllers.Template.at("/govuk_template_play/assets", file)

And finally we need to add the govuk_template_play/assets folder to the playAssetsDirectories property in our Build definition

#####project/Build.scala

...
lazy val main = play.Project(appName, appVersion, appDependencies).settings(
  playAssetsDirectories <+= baseDirectory { _ / "govuk_template_play" / "assets" },
...

##Init the submodule on compile

Final thing we will do is add a task to the play compile task that will initialise and update the govuk_template_play submodule. This will mean that when someone else checks out your app they will not need to do anything else to get the app up and running than executing play run

Create the following sh script #####update-template.sh

echo "Updating govuk_template_play"
git submodule init
git submodule update

Now we will execute this script anytime play tries to compile the app. Make the following changes to your Build definition:

#####project/Build.scala

...
val updateTemplate = TaskKey[Unit]("update-template", "Updates the govuk_template_play")
val updateTemplateTask = updateTemplate := {
  "./update-template.sh".!
}

lazy val main = play.Project(appName, appVersion, appDependencies).settings(
  updateTemplateTask,
  compile <<= (compile in Compile) dependsOn updateTemplate,
...

Done!

##Using the templates

A simple example of how to use the template can be found in main.scala