Building RESTful APIs with Go

Welcome to Part 2 of our Backend Engineering for Full Stack Devs series! 🚀 Today, we’re diving into one of the most fundamental topics: Building RESTful APIs with Go. Whether you’re building an internal tool or a public API, understanding how to structure and implement RESTful endpoints is key.

In this post, we’ll cover:

• What makes an API RESTful (and why it matters).
• How to design endpoints and handle HTTP methods.
• Building a simple CRUD API with Go’s net/http package and Gorilla Mux.
• Handling JSON requests and responses.

By the end, you’ll have a solid grasp of how to design and implement scalable RESTful APIs in Go. Let’s get started! 🎉

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What Makes an API RESTful? 🤔

Before we dive into the code, let’s quickly go over what makes an API RESTful. REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for building APIs that follow these principles:

1. Stateless: Each request from the client must contain all the necessary information to process it. The server doesn’t store session information.
2. Resource-Oriented: URLs represent resources, like /users, /products, or /orders, and HTTP methods define the actions.
3. HTTP Methods: RESTful APIs use HTTP methods to specify actions:
   • GET: Retrieve data.
   • POST: Create new resources.
   • PUT: Update existing resources.
   • DELETE: Remove resources.
4. Use of HTTP Status Codes: RESTful APIs make good use of HTTP status codes (200 for success, 404 for not found, etc.).

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Setting Up Your Go Project

Let’s build a basic CRUD API for managing users using Go and the Gorilla Mux router. Our API will have the following endpoints:

HTTP Method	Endpoint	Action
GET	/users	Retrieve all users
GET	/users/{id}	Retrieve a specific user
POST	/users	Create a new user
PUT	/users/{id}	Update an existing user
DELETE	/users/{id}	Delete a user

Step 1: Install Dependencies

First, install the Gorilla Mux router for routing:

go get -u github.com/gorilla/mux

Create a simple main.go file to get started:

package main

import (
    "log"
    "net/http"
    "github.com/gorilla/mux"
)

func main() {
    r := mux.NewRouter()

    // Define routes here
    http.Handle("/", r)

    log.Println("Server started on :8080")
    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil))
}

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Step 2: Define the Handlers

Now, let’s define our API handlers. These will correspond to our CRUD actions. We’ll use a simple in-memory map to store user data for this example.

In-Memory Data Store

type User struct {
    ID   string `json:"id"`
    Name string `json:"name"`
    Age  int    `json:"age"`
}

var users = make(map[string]User)

Step 3: Implement CRUD Handlers

We’ll implement each CRUD operation: Create, Read, Update, and Delete users.

GET /users – Retrieve All Users

func getUsers(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    var userList []User
    for _, user := range users {
        userList = append(userList, user)
    }
    json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(userList)
}

GET /users/{id} – Retrieve a Specific User

func getUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    params := mux.Vars(r)
    user, found := users[params["id"]]
    if !found {
        http.Error(w, "User not found", http.StatusNotFound)
        return
    }
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(user)
}

POST /users – Create a New User

func createUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    var user User
    _ = json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&user)
    users[user.ID] = user
    w.WriteHeader(http.StatusCreated)
    json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(user)
}

PUT /users/{id} – Update an Existing User

func updateUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    params := mux.Vars(r)
    user, found := users[params["id"]]
    if !found {
        http.Error(w, "User not found", http.StatusNotFound)
        return
    }
    _ = json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&user)
    user.ID = params["id"]  // Ensure the ID stays the same
    users[params["id"]] = user
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(user)
}

DELETE /users/{id} – Delete a User

func deleteUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    params := mux.Vars(r)
    _, found := users[params["id"]]
    if !found {
        http.Error(w, "User not found", http.StatusNotFound)
        return
    }
    delete(users, params["id"])
    w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNoContent)
}

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Step 4: Register Routes

Now that we’ve defined our handlers, let’s add the routes to our router in the main function:

func main() {
    r := mux.NewRouter()

    r.HandleFunc("/users", getUsers).Methods("GET")
    r.HandleFunc("/users/{id}", getUser).Methods("GET")
    r.HandleFunc("/users", createUser).Methods("POST")
    r.HandleFunc("/users/{id}", updateUser).Methods("PUT")
    r.HandleFunc("/users/{id}", deleteUser).Methods("DELETE")

    http.Handle("/", r)

    log.Println("Server started on :8080")
    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil))
}

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Step 5: Testing the API

You can test your API using Postman or curl commands. Here’s how you can create a new user and retrieve users:

1. Create a New User:

   curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/users \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -d '{"id":"1", "name":"John Doe", "age":30}'

1. Get All Users:

   curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/users

1. Get a Specific User:

   curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/users/1

1. Update a User:

   curl -X PUT http://localhost:8080/users/1 \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -d '{"name":"John Smith", "age":31}'

1. Delete a User:

   curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/users/1

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Best Practices for Building RESTful APIs

1. Use Proper HTTP Methods: Follow RESTful principles by using GET for reads, POST for creates, PUT for updates, and DELETE for deletes.
2. Return Appropriate Status Codes: Always use correct HTTP status codes (e.g., 201 Created for successful resource creation, 404 Not Found for missing resources).
3. Handle Errors Gracefully: Don’t expose internal errors to users. Use generic messages like "User not found" or "Invalid request."
4. Use Pagination for Large Data Sets: When returning large lists (like /users), implement pagination to prevent excessive data loading.
5. Secure Your API: Use authentication methods like JWT or OAuth2 to secure sensitive endpoints.

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What’s Next?

Now that we’ve built a basic RESTful API, it’s time to integrate database support so we can persist our data. In the next post, we’ll dive into using an ORM to connect our Go API to a database. Stay tuned for Part 3! 📦