Mini Web Server in Go

A very simple implementation of a Web Server using the Go programming language.

Description

This project implements a basic Web Server using only the Go Standard Library. It was created for educational purposes to explore the fundamental functions provided by the standard library for networking, specifically the net/http package. The server is capable of:

• Listening on a specific port for incoming HTTP requests.
• Processing requests and replying with corresponding HTTP responses.

The application serves requests in two different ways:

1. Handler functions: Registers individual functions to process requests based on specific patterns.
2. FileServer handler: Serves HTTP requests with the contents of the file system rooted at root.

A Postman collection is included in this repository for testing the functionality of the Web server.

Getting Started

Dependencies

To build and compile the application, you will need:

• Go version 1.18.x or higher
• Postman (optional, for testing the provided requests)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-repo/mini-web-server-go.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd mini-web-server-go

3. Initialize the Go module:

   go mod init module_name
   go mod vendor

4. Update the import reference in cmd/web-server/golang-web-server.go:

   "module_name/pkg/handler"

5. Compile and build the application:
   • On Unix-like systems:

     ./scripts/build.sh

   • Alternatively, run:

     go build -o ./bin/web-server cmd/web-server/golang-web-server.go

   This will generate a binary file named web-server in the bin directory.

Running the Server

Using Handler Functions (default)

./bin/web-server

Expected output:

Initializing the handler functions...
Handler functions have been initialized
Listening on localhost:8081...

Using FileServer Handler

./bin/web-server -use-handler-functions=false

Expected output:

Initializing handler with FileServer
Handler has been initialized
Listening on localhost:8081...

Testing

You can test the application using a Web browser or Postman.

Web Browser

Open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:8081

If everything is working correctly, the index page should load. Check the source code for the requests supported by the Web server.

Postman

1. Import the Postman collection provided in the repository.
2. Open the Golang Mini Web Server collection.
3. The collection contains two folders:
   • Handler Functions Implementation
   • FileServer Handler Implementation
4. Run the requests matching the current mode of the Web server.