bootdotdev-fcc-learn-golang-assets/project/2-boilerplate

Boilerplate

Before we get to the app-specific stuff, let's scaffold a simple CRUD server, hopefully, you're already familiar with how to do this from the "Learn Web Servers" course! That said, I'll provide a quick refresher.

It might be a good idea to use your "Learn Web Servers" code as a reference while building this project!

1. Create a new project

You should know how to do this by now! My process is:

• Create a repo on GitHub or GitLab (initialized with a README)
• Clone it onto your machine
• Create a new Go module with go mod init.
• Create a main.go file in the root of your project, and add a func main() to it.

2. Install packages

Install the following packages using go get:

• chi
• [cors]https://github.com/go-chi/cors
• godotenv

3. Env

Create a gitignore'd .env file in the root of your project and add the following:

PORT="8080"

The .env file is a convenient way to store environment (configuration) variables.

• Use godotenv.Load() to load the variables from the file into your environment at the top of main().
• Use os.Getenv() to get the value of PORT.

4. Create a router and server

1. Create a chi.NewRouter
2. Use router.Use to add the built-in cors.Handler middleware.
3. Create sub-router for the /v1 namespace and mount it to the main router.
4. Create a new http.Server and add the port and the main router to it.
5. Start the server

5. Create some JSON helper functions

Create two functions:

• respondWithJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, status int, payload interface{})
• respondWithError(w http.ResponseWriter, code int, msg string) (which calls respondWithJSON with error-specific values)

You used these in the "Learn Web Servers" course, so you should be able to figure out how to implement them again. They're simply helper functions that write an HTTP response with:

• A status code
• An application/json content type
• A JSON body

6. Add a readiness handler

Add a handler for GET /v1/readiness requests. It should return a 200 status code and a JSON body:

{
  "status": "ok"
}

The purpose of this endpoint is for you to test your respondWithJSON function.

7. Add an error handler

Add a handler for GET /v1/err requests. It should return a 500 status code and a JSON body:

{
  "error": "Internal Server Error"
}

The purpose of this endpoint is for you to test your respondWithError function.

8. Run and test your server

go build -o out && ./out

Once it's running, use an HTTP client to test your endpoints.