Configure the GOV.UK Design System Service Portal Question Page Pattern Journey

concept australia Updated Jun 1, 2026 8 min read psds-config-govuk-dev-tk-portal-question.md
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Configurable portal widgets provide you with the ability to configure the behavior, content, and layout of the GOV.UK Design System Service Portal by configuring widget settings and instance options. Use the base system widgets included with the GDS Service Portal to get started configuring portal pages.

The GDS Service Portal question pages are formatted around the GOV.UK "one question per page" page pattern journey. Page patterns are "best practice design solutions to user-specific focused tasks." A citizen answers a short series of pages, each with one question, and when the constituent selects Submit, a case is created and every answer is recorded as a summary comment within the case.

This app ships the following two examples that may be cloned and used as a template. Both sample tiles should appear on the catalog page by default— "Report an abandoned vehicle (GDS-question-pages-pattern example)" and "Report a missed waste collection (GDS-question-pages-pattern example)" — alongside the two record producers they sit next to.

Journey Case table Questions Mapped to case columns
Report Abandoned Vehicle (Private Property) sn_gsm_service_request_case 13 9
Report a Missed Waste Collection sn_gsm_government_service_case 13 5

A constituent filling out a form using the default GDS Service Portal question page journey will see the following:

  1. A journey tile on the services catalog page, beside the ordinary request forms.
  2. A landing page explaining the service, with a Start button. Each question journey needs its own landing page.
  3. A series of question pages, one question at a time, with Back links.
  4. A full summary of questions and answers before submitting.
  5. A confirmation.

A constituent filling out a form using the default GDS Service Portal question page journey will see the following:

  • A short description naming the journey. For example, an agent will see:

    Text
    Report Abandoned Vehicle (Private Property) (GDS-question-pages-pattern example): someone          has left a car outside my house

    The journey name comes first so an agent knows which service the case was opened under.

  • Selected answers written to real case fields(address, postcode, contact) so they can be searched, filtered and reported on.

  • A comment listing every question and answer, including answers that aren't written to a field. An answer only becomes reportable if a matching column exists on the case table.

  • A link to a read-only copy of the submitted journey, rendered in the portal as the constituent answered it, with any uploaded files as download links. Only the citizen who submitted it, and staff who can read the case, can open that view.

Configure the GOV.UK Design System Service Portal Question Page Pattern Journey

Use the question page pattern as a template to set up a question journey for your constituents using the GDS Service Portal.

Before you begin

Before creating a service journey, plan the following:

  1. The citizen-facing service name.
  2. Introductory guidance.
  3. The target case table.
  4. The question pages or sections.
  5. The questions in each section.
  6. Which questions are mandatory.
  7. The control required for each question: text, text area, number, date, Yes/No, radios, dropdown, checkboxes, reference lookup, or attachment.
  8. Which answers must map to case fields.
  9. Who should be able to discover and start the service.
  10. A short outcome-oriented service name, such as Report a blocked public footpath.

Role required: admin

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Assessments > Metric Types to view the Classic Assessment metric-type list, where you will create a metric type with the following values:

    Field Value
    Name Citizen-facing journey name
    Active true
    Evaluation method Survey
    Publish state Published
    Portal pagination Category
    Schedule type On demand
    Allow retake false, unless the service explicitly requires it
    Roles Empty
    Source table The case table selected during planning
    Introduction Introductory guidance for the citizen

    Save the record and copy the sys_id, which is the journey identifier used in the portal URLs.

    1. After saving, re-open the record and verify the following:

      • roles is empty. The OOTB Create Survey Records business rule may add the survey_adminand survey_reader. Remove those roles if they appear.

      • schedule_type is on_demand.

      • publish_state is published.

      • source_table is populated before mapping questions to fields. Note: Creating the metric type normally creates a default metric category with:

      • A name that matches the journey name character-for-character

      • Order 1

      • Empty questions Do not delete this category. It does not render as a citizen-facing page, but the assessment engine uses it to resolve the journey. Verify it exists by viewing the metric type's related lists, or from Assessments > Metric Types > Categories.

  2. Create an assessment metric category for each page or logical group of questions.

    For each category, set the fields to the following values:

    Field Guidance
    Metric type The journey created in Step 1
    Name Page heading (e.g, Location details)
    Order Sequential values with substantial gaps (e.g., 100, 200, 300)

    Because portal pagination is set to category per GOV.UK GDS guidelines, each category is rendered as a separate question page.

  3. Create assessment metrics under the appropriate category.

    For each question, configure the following values:

    Field Guidance
    Metric type The journey metric type
    Category The question-page category
    Question Citizen-facing question text
    Name same as Question
    Method Assessment
    Condition question Always, unless conditional logic is deliberately configured
    Active true
    Mandatory As required
    Scored false (for normal service-request questions)
    Weight 10 (suitable for non-scored questions)
    Order Sequential values with substantial gaps (e.g., 100, 200, 300)
    Source field Optional case field mapping

    The following is a list of supported question types that allow for one-question-per-page organization.

    Desired control Metric datatype Additional setting
    Text input string String option short or wide
    Textarea string String option must be multiline
    Number long or percentage —
    Date date Uses the browser's native date input
    Yes/No radios boolean —
    Single checkbox checkbox —
    Dropdown choice Add metric definitions. For a small list, use a scaleradio group instead of a choice dropdown, in line with GOV.UK guidance.
    Radio group scale or numericscale Add metric definitions. For a small list, use a scaleradio group instead of a choice dropdown, in line with GOV.UK guidance.
    Checkbox group multiplecheckbox Add metric definitions
    Reference autocomplete reference Set the reference table
    File upload attachment —

    Note: Conditional questions are supported only within the same category/page. Set Depends on to the controlling question, and Displayed when to the option values that reveal the dependent question. Classic Assessment cannot skip a later category based on an answer from an earlier page.

  4. Add the options for the choice questions; for choice, scale, numericscale, and multiplecheckbox questions, add assessment metric definitions through the question's related list.

    For every choice option, set the following values:

    Field Guidance
    Metric Enter the question text.
    Display value Enter the citizen-facing option label.
    Value Enter the stable internal value.
    Order Sequential values with substantial gaps (e.g., 100, 200, 300)

  5. Map the question answers to case fields in the case table.

    To copy an answer into a case field, set the question metric's Source field.

    To proceed, both of these conditions must be met:

    1. The metric type has the correct Source table.
    2. The selected field exists on that table and accepts the question's value. For example, when the target is sn_gsm_service_request_case, address answers can be mapped to fields such as street, city, province, or zip, ifthose fields exist on that table.

    Inherited fields are valid mappings, but fields defined only on a child table are not available when the journey targets its parent. Verify the effective field set for the selected target table in System Definition > Tables & Columns before saving the mapping.

    Unmapped answers are still included in the case's question-and-answer summary, but they are not available as separate reportable case fields. An answer only becomes reportable if it contains a matching field in the table.

    Set the source table before mapping any questions. If the source table is changed later, the OOTB Wipe Metric Source Fields rule can clear every mapping in the journey. Re-open all questions and restore their Source field values after any source-table change.

  6. Configure a dedicated assessment page for case creation.

    The shared ukgds_assessment page is useful for testing, but its widget options are shared by every journey using that page. Do not set a journey-specific case table on the shared instance unless every journey on it should create the same kind of case.

    For a configuration-only service:

    1. Open Service Portal → Service Portal Configuration → Designer.

    2. Clone the existing ukgds_assessment page.

    3. Assign a unique page ID, for example ukgds_blocked_footpath_assessment.

    4. Open the UK GDS Assessment widget instance options on the cloned page.

    5. Set Metric type sys_id (metric_type_sys_id) to the metric type created in Step 1.

    6. Set Case target table (case_target_table) to the intended case table.

    7. Set Allow resume according to the service policy.

      True lets a citizen resume an in-progress assessment.

    8. Enable or disable the step indicator, inline answer summary, section descriptions, and question guidance as required.

    9. If completed submissions should link to the read-only answer view, set Case view page ID to ukgds_assessment_view.

    10. Save and test the cloned page directly.

    Because the widget instance pins metric_type_sys_id, the cloned page URL does not need the type parameter. The configured case_target_table supplies the journey-to-case registration that would otherwise require a source-code map entry.

  7. After submitting, locate the newest case on the configured target table.

    Verify that:

    • A case was created on the expected table.
    • opened_by identifies the submitting citizen.
    • The short description identifies the journey.
    • correlation_id contains the assessment instance sys_id.
    • Mapped answers populated the intended case fields.
    • The case comments contain the complete question-and-answer summary.
    • Attachments are available to the agent where applicable.
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