Create a Feed

An RSS feed is just a URL that points to some XML. Users will be able to add feeds to our database so that our server (in a future step) can go download all of the posts in the feed (like blog posts or podcast episodes).

1. Create a feeds table

Like any table in our DB, we'll need the standard id, created_at, and updated_at fields. We'll also need a few more:

name: The name of the feed (like "The Changelog, or "The Boot.dev Blog")
url: The URL of the feed
user_id: The ID of the user who added this feed

I'd recommend making the url field unique so that in the future we aren't downloading duplicate posts. I'd also recommend using ON DELETE CASCADE on the user_id foreign key so that if a user is deleted, all of their feeds are automatically deleted as well.

Write the appropriate migrations and run them.

2. Add a query to create a feed

Add a new query to create a feed, then use sqlc generate to generate the Go code.

3. Create some authentication middleware

Most of the endpoints going forward will require a user to be logged in. Let's DRY up our code by creating some middleware that will check for a valid API key.

Now, I'm not a fan of how the Chi router handles stateful middleware using context (middleware that passes data down to the next handler). I prefer to create custom handlers that accept extra values. You can add middleware however you like, but here are some examples from my code.

A custom type for handlers that require authentication

type authedHandler func(http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request, database.User)

Middleware that authenticates a request, gets the user and calls the next authed handler

func (cfg *apiConfig) middlewareAuth(handler authedHandler) http.HandlerFunc {
    ///
}

Using the middleware

v1Router.Get("/users", apiCfg.middlewareAuth(apiCfg.handlerUsersGet))

4. Create a handler to create a feed

Create a handler that creates a feed. This handler and the "get user" handler should use the authentication middleware.

Endpoint: POST /v1/feeds

Example request body:

{
  "name": "The Boot.dev Blog",
  "url": "https://blog.boot.dev/index.xml"
}

Example response body:

{
  "id": "4a82b372-b0e2-45e3-956a-b9b83358f86b",
  "created_at": "2021-05-01T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2021-05-01T00:00:00Z",
  "name": "The Boot.dev Blog",
  "url": "https://blog.boot.dev/index.xml",
  "user_id": "d6962597-f316-4306-a929-fe8c8651671e"
}

5. Test

Test your handler using an HTTP client, then use your database client to make sure the data was saved correctly.