We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms • Hacker News Board

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#91

Post by kaashif » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:36 PM UTC

LeonardoTolstoy wrote: post #64

meindnoch wrote: post #21

When I moved to the UK, one of the surprising things was how well the GOV.UK ecosystem worked. My original country uses a mishmash of Java applets, ajax-based websites, and a mixture of mildly broken, outdated web technologies, served from a variety of domains. GOV.UK was a breath of fresh air with its simple, consistent UI, served as static HTML. This is how internet services should look like.

I moved there from the US (and since then I've moved back). The main surprise was learning that working for the government is relatively high paying and considered a very nice and challenging job that great programmers coveted. At least that was my impression when a very good systems engineer workmate left my company to start working for gov.uk. I do wish there was a similar system in the US as I would find public se…

As someone from the UK, with friends who work as programmers in both the public and private sectors, I'm not sure what you're saying is true. It's definitely not highly paying to work for the government, although "relatively" may be doing the heavy lifting in that sentence.

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#92

Post by petepete » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:37 PM UTC

adamretter wrote: post #45

This looks great :-) However reading the How it works section, it states: "Each form needs an email address to be set for completed forms to be sent to when they’re submitted" So... erm is an email Inbox needed for integration? - how very 1990! In addition to email, for use by developers in other UK GOV departments - surely HTTP PUT of an XML or JSON document to a user nominated URL (with provided auth token) would h…

The main intent here is for non-technical folks to be able to replace the tens of thousands of low volume PDF forms, not for technical ones to use it while building actual services.

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#93

Post by peter_retief » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

nly wrote: post #46

peter_retief wrote: post #20

Their forms are excellent, I completed my British citizenship effortlessly, all online.

My condolences

Haha it is not that bad, South Africa is not doing that well either.

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#94

Post by e2le » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

meindnoch wrote: post #21

When I moved to the UK, one of the surprising things was how well the GOV.UK ecosystem worked. My original country uses a mishmash of Java applets, ajax-based websites, and a mixture of mildly broken, outdated web technologies, served from a variety of domains. GOV.UK was a breath of fresh air with its simple, consistent UI, served as static HTML. This is how internet services should look like.

>This is how internet services should look like.

Thankfully I've noticed more sites copying gov.uk, very few but still positive.

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#95

Post by jordanrobinson » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:41 PM UTC

alias_neo wrote: post #26

pnut wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the UK government's bank holiday API has bunting advice just makes my day.

Where did you find this? Is it part of the API response? Would be fun to use this for some digital decor at home. Next bank holiday is Christmas so I've got some time to build something! EDIT: Just found it in the JSON; shame, was hoping it would contain bunting patterns/colours. https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays.json

If you go off this issue it looks like they use tinsel at Christmas, although I'm not sure where that logic is.

https://github.com/alphagov/calendars/issues/678

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#96

Post by doublesocket » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:41 PM UTC

meindnoch wrote: post #21

When I moved to the UK, one of the surprising things was how well the GOV.UK ecosystem worked. My original country uses a mishmash of Java applets, ajax-based websites, and a mixture of mildly broken, outdated web technologies, served from a variety of domains. GOV.UK was a breath of fresh air with its simple, consistent UI, served as static HTML. This is how internet services should look like.

The flip side of this is local government technology. Truly some of the worst crimes against web development have been committed by local councils, or rather their outsourcing partners.

The service that takes that crown in my experience is tarantopermits.com, a parking permit management system that fills me with rage just thinking about it.

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#97

Post by als0 » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:43 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #73

Aeolun wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems unenforcable under a MIT license? Especially outside of France.

Governments can write laws to do whatever they like... And they have police to enforce stuff however they like.

How can French police enforce things outside of France?

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#98

Post by Gud » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:45 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #53

46Bit wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm, GOV.UK uses Google Analytics, Fastly CDN, AWS containers, and I believe is developing an app. (I worked at GDS until two years ago.)

Everyone uses Google Analytics. I don't find it particularly high up any list of real worries.

I don’t.

I despise Google and what they became and so should you.

Maybe my 10 visits a day webpage is an anomaly, and I’m truly the only one not using Google analytics - Still, don’t pretend Google analytics is used by everyone.

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#99

Post by vidarh » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:47 PM UTC

LeonardoTolstoy wrote: post #64

meindnoch wrote: post #21

When I moved to the UK, one of the surprising things was how well the GOV.UK ecosystem worked. My original country uses a mishmash of Java applets, ajax-based websites, and a mixture of mildly broken, outdated web technologies, served from a variety of domains. GOV.UK was a breath of fresh air with its simple, consistent UI, served as static HTML. This is how internet services should look like.

I moved there from the US (and since then I've moved back). The main surprise was learning that working for the government is relatively high paying and considered a very nice and challenging job that great programmers coveted. At least that was my impression when a very good systems engineer workmate left my company to start working for gov.uk. I do wish there was a similar system in the US as I would find public se…

> The main surprise was learning that working for the government is relatively high paying

It's middle of the tree at best. I'm sure you can find people for whom it's well paying, but the recruiters from UK gov departments that regularly contact me keep trying to sell me on the benefits of jobs where the upper salary band is less than half of what I earn.

Re: We’re opening up access to Gov.uk forms

#100

Post by ceejayoz » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 1:49 PM UTC

als0 wrote: post #97

londons_explore wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments can write laws to do whatever they like... And they have police to enforce stuff however they like.

How can French police enforce things outside of France?

Extradition, cooperation with other EU nations...

Or they just blow up your boat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior