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Last updated: 30 Mar 2022

local-links-manager: Remove a service

From time to time, either a service (LGSL code) is no longer valid, required or has been removed from the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) system. When this happens, we need to remove the service from local-links-manager and publisher.

Before you start

Before starting the process it is worth gethering a few key pieces of information:

  • The Local Government Services List (LGSL) code of the service you are removing
  • The URL or slug of the service
  • The ESD URL of the service

You may want to back-up the links created for the service before deleting the service.

First run the export:links:all rake task (via the console or jenkins) which exports all of the links for all services in local-links-manager to the following file public/data/links_to_services_provided_by_local_authorities.csv. If you're running this locally, note that this file is ignored by .gitignore.

bundle exec rake export:links:all

Then retrieve the newly created file using scp-pull...

gds govuk connect scp-pull -e [integration|staging|production] backend source_file destination_file

Apps on backend can be found in /var/apps/APP-NAME. So, our data file should be available at /var/apps/local-links-manager/public/data/links_to_services_provided_by_local_authorities.csv.

For example:

gds govuk connect scp-pull -e integration backend /var/apps/local-links-manager/public/data/links_to_services_provided_by_local_authorities.csv ~/Desktop

Note: Once stored in a secure location, please remember to delete the downloaded file from your local machine.

2. Unpublish or update the service in publisher

There are two options for maintaining the service going forward:

  1. Update the format of the service so that it becomes a standard plain text page - without a start button and local lookup functionality. Then update the page content as appropriate.

  2. Un-publish the service and - if desired - redirect the page.

Ask a content designer to carry out the required option.

3. Remove the LGSL code from publisher

publisher stores details about the serivce (LGSL code, name and providing tier) in data/local_services.csv. Remove the service from this file, create a pull request and get it approved and merged.

local-links-manager has a Service model that stores details about the service, together with it's Interaction and providing tier(s). To remove the Service record, and all dependant records, run the service:destroy rake task.

bundle exec rake service:destroy[LGSL_CODE]

5. Remove the service from publisher

We've previously removed the LGSL code from publisher. Now we need to remove the service - and any other services not in the data/local_services.csv file.

To do this run the local_transactions:remove_old_services rake task.

bundle exec rake local_transactions:remove_old_services

6. Remove the service from ESD

Ask your Delivery Manager to contact an ESD Project Manager and ask them to remove the service from ESD. This may take a while as it seems ESD is only updated sporadically, which is fine as there is no link between ESD and either local-links-manager or publisher.