Initially, SOAP-based web services became more popular with XML. Then, since 2012, REST picked up the pace and gulped SOAP in whole. The rise of a new generation of web languages, such as Python, JavaScript (Node.js), and Go, showed a different approach to web development compared to the traditional ones, such as ASP.NET and Spring. Since this decade, Go has become more and more popular due to its speed and intuitiveness. Less verbose code, strict type checking, and support for concurrency make Go a better choice for writing any web backend. Some of the best tools, such as Docker and Kubernetes, are written in Go. Google uses Go a lot in its daily activities. You can see a list of Go-using companies at https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/GoUsers.
For any internet company, the web development department is crucial. Data that the company accumulates needs to be served to the clients in form of an API or web service. Various clients (browser, mobile application, and server) consume API every day. REST is an architectural pattern that defines resource consumption in the form of methods.
Go is a better language to write web servers. It is the responsibility of an intermediate Go developer to know how to create RESTful services using the constructs available in the language. Once the basics are understood, the developer should learn other things, such as testing, optimizing, and deploying services. This book is an attempt to make the reader comfortable with developing web services.
Experts think that in the near future, as Python is moving into the Data Science space and competing with R, Go can emerge as the single go-to language in the web development space by competing with NodeJS. This book is not a cookbook. However, it offers many tips and tricks throughout your journey. By the end of the book, the reader will be comfortable with REST API development through a multitude of examples. They will also come to know about the latest practices, such as protocol buffers/gRPC/API Gateway, which will move their knowledge to the next level.
Chapter 1, Getting Started with REST API Development, discusses the fundamentals of REST architecture and verbs.
Chapter 2, Handling Routing for Our REST Services, describes how to add routing to our API.
Chapter 3, Working with Middleware and RPC, is about working with middleware handlers and basic RPC.
Chapter 4, Simplifying RESTful Services with Popular Go Frameworks, presents quick prototyping API with frameworks.
Chapter 5, Working with MongoDB and Go to Create REST API, explains how to use MongoDB as the database for our API.
Chapter 6, Working with Protocol Buffers and gRPC, shows how to use Protocol buffers and gRPC to obtain performance boost over HTTP/JSON.
Chapter 7, Working with PostgreSQL, JSON, and Go, explains the benefits of PostgreSQL and a JSON store for creating APIs.
Chapter 8, Building a REST API Client in Go and Unit Testing, presents techniques for building client software and API testing with unit tests in Go.
Chapter 9, Scaling Our REST API Using Microservices, is about breaking our API service into microservices using Go Kit.
Chapter 10, Deploying Our REST Services, shows how we can deploy services built on Nginx and monitor them using supervisord.
Chapter 11, Using an API Gateway to Monitor and Metricize REST API, explains how to make our services production grade by adding multiple APIs behind API Gateway.
Chapter 12, Handling Authentication for Our REST Services, discusses securing our API with basic authentication and JSON Web Tokens (JWT).
For this book, you need a laptop/PC with Linux (Ubuntu 16.04), macOS X, or Windows installed. We will use Go 1.8+ as the version of our compiler and install many third-party packages, so a working internet connection is required. We will also use Docker in the final chapters to explain concepts of API Gateway. Docker V17.0+ is recommended. If Windows users have problems with the native Go installation for any examples, use Docker for Windows and run Ubuntu container, which gives more flexibility; refer to https://www.docker.com/docker-windows for more details.
Before diving into the book, refresh your language basics at https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1.
Even though these are the basic requirements, we will guide you through the installations wherever required.
This book is for all the Go developers who are comfortable with the language and seeking to learn REST API development. Even senior engineers can enjoy this book, as it has many cutting-edge concepts, such as microservices, protocol buffers, and gRPC.
Developers who are already familiar with REST concepts and stepping into the Go world from other platforms, such as Python and Ruby, can also benefit a lot.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Name the preceding program as basicHandler.go."
A block of code is set as follows:
{
"ID": 1,
"DriverName": "Menaka",
"OperatingStatus": true
}Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
go run customMux.goNew terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "It returns message saying Logged In successfully."
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