HMRC Manuals API

Provides an API for a system built by HMRC to publish tax manuals onto GOV.UK. In many ways it is analogous to a backend/admin app for publishing on GOV.UK. Content which passes validation and checks for unsanitary content is submitted to the GOV.UK Publishing API application. The application does not have a database itself. An HMRC manual consists of two document types: the manual itself and manual sections.

Nomenclature

• Manual: HMRC manual with title and description, contains many Sections. See Adding or updating a manual for more details. Before adding a manual through the api, a new slug should be added to the list of known slugs.

• Section: Sections can contain sub-sections and/or a content body. See Adding or updating a section for more details.

Technical documentation

This is a Ruby on Rails app, and should follow our Rails app conventions.

You can use the GOV.UK Docker environment to run the application and its tests with all the necessary dependencies. Follow the usage instructions to get started.

Use GOV.UK Docker to run any commands that follow.

Running the test suite

bundle exec rspec

Adding a new slug

Before adding a new manual through the API, the slug for the manual must be added to /config/initializers/known_manual_slugs.rb and the application re-deployed.

The workflow for this is likely to be initiated by a Zendesk ticket raised by HMRC with the new slug. A developer can then add the slug and re-deploy the application and inform HMRC that the slug is ready to be published against.

Manuals and decisions

See the extended documentation for details:

• Connecting to the API
• Adding or updating a manual
• Adding or updating a section
• Responses to PUT requests
• Slugs, Section Ids and Urls
• Content Ids
• Markup
• Manual Tags
• Removing published manuals
• Testing publishing in GOV.UK Docker
• Managing manuals and sections with rake
• Responses to PUT requests

Licence

MIT License