Document collections
Document collections group related documents on a single page that are aimed for a specific audience or around a specific theme or topic.
How it works
A document collection could be used to publish:
- a set of forms
- publications in the same series
- a mix of document types related to the same task or event
Contextual sidebar
If a page is part of a document collection, the document collection that it’s part of will automatically appear in the sidebar under the related content section.
If a page is part of multiple collections, all the collections are displayed. Examples: Register a trademark, Self Assessment forms and helpsheets for trusts and estates
Rules on how multiple collections are ordered
If more than one collection page is listed, the collections appear in the order of their relative positions within the document collections they belong to.
Example: National curriculum in England: framework for key stages 1 to 4 - The content item belongs to 3 document collections. It’s the first item in ‘National curriculum’, so that document collection appears first in the list. It’s the 17th item in the ‘Schools: statutory guidance’ document collection - so is the second link in the sidebar. It is the 54th item in the ‘Local-authority-maintained schools: governance’ collection - so that is the third link.
Email sign up links on document collections
Document collections have a ‘Get emails about this page’ button which allows users to sign up for email updates when:
- there’s a major change to any of the tagged content items listed on the document collection
- there’s a major change to the document collection page itself
- the document collection is unpublished and redirected
There’s an exception on some HMRC document collections where users will get emails about the topic instead of the document collection. Find out why they were set up like this.
Live examples
- Self Assessment: detailed information
- Multiplication tables check
- Intellectual property: Trade marks
Complete list of examples available and page data on Content Data.
How it's built
These are the underlying technologies that make-up the document collections front template.
Content schema
What is a content schema?
Content type
document_collection
What is a content type?
document_type. It powers search filters in all finders and changes the content type label users see on GOV.UK pages.
Publishing app
What is a publishing app?
Rendering app
What is a rendering app?
Components
| Component | Source | Publishing app input field(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Layout super navigation header | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Breadcrumbs | Autogenerated in frontend template | Topics taxonomy tags to customise breadcrumbs |
| Section break | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Single page notification button | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Published dates | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Feedback | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Layout footer | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Contents list - only appears if 3 or more collections | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Back to top - only appears if the page is extremely long | Autogenerated in frontend template | |
| Page title | Customized by publisher | Title (required) |
| Lead paragraph | Customized by publisher | Summary (required) |
| Metadata block | Customized by publisher | First published date & Associations: Lead organisations |
| Govspeak content | Customized by publisher | Body |
| Published dates | Customized by publisher | First published date & Change note (required) |
| Heading - title for individual collection | Customized by publisher | |
| Govspeak content - description for the individual collection | Customized by publisher | |
| Related navigation when displayed within contextual footer | Customized by publisher | Taxonomy |
| Related navigation when displayed within contextual sidebar | ||
| Signup link |
| Date | Description | Document | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2022 | Collections pages were used as navigation pages for specialist topics (the equivalent of a mainstream browse topic or sub-topic page). We tested with 5 accountants, frequent users of GOV.UK, and using desktop. Users had no difficulties with the page design, and successfully used the page to navigate. Including a short description under each link within the collection helped users to choose between the options and aided navigation. |
Prototype testing specialist topics (opens in a new tab) |
Help improve this frontend template
To help make sure that this page is useful, relevant and up to date, instructions on how to contribute can be found on the GitHub repository (opens in a new tab).