Golang Echo Framework Modular Base Architecture

This project defines a way to use the Golang Echo Framework as a SSR (Server Side Rendering) framework based in Laravel abd Django, imitating its template usage and inheritance.

The idea of this base architecture is to provide a folder structure that allows developers to build faster a fullstack project with Echo. Defining a way to create modules that can be plugged or unplugged from the main server only by adding them to a slice.

This project is aimed at developers with a basic knowledge of Golang web servers and Echo Framework. If you are new to Golang or Echo, please read the Golang documentation and the Echo documentation first.

Project structure

This project is structured in the following way:

• app/ This folder contains the server and database driver instantiation, also contains the code to lift the modules and subcribe the routes and controlles to the main server, contains the code that handles the session cookies and some tools for config and hashing features. The code inside this folder must use only code from third party packages or code from the same app/ folder to avoid circular dependencies. SOME OF THE CODE INSIDE THIS FOLDER SHOULD NOT BE MODIFIED. PLEASE GIVE ATTENTION TO FIRST LINE COMMENTS OF THE FILES TO AVOID BREAKING THE PROJECT

• authentication/ This folder contains the code to manage the creation and authentication of the users. The session is handled by a session cookie and the user data is added to the context by the UserIsLoggedIn middleware. Inside the views/ folder you can see how template ingeritance and template custom functions can be used. THE CODE INSIDE THIS FOLDER IS A WORKING EXAMPLE OF HOW AUTHENTICATION CAN BE IMPLEMENTED IN ECHO, the code may be modified if it doesn't fit your project requirements.

• database/ This folder contains the code to connect to the database and a struct to be used in compositions with other repositories structs in other modules. Also contains a up.sql file that allows to initialize the database. THIS CODE CAN BE EDITED TO FIT YOUR PROJECT REQUIREMENTS. An ORM can be used instead of the database/sql package.

• landing_page/ This folder contains the minimum code a module needs to work correctly. This module only renders a string and the modules.go file contains the code to subscribe the routes and controllers to the main server. THIS CODE CAN BE EDITED TO FIT YOUR PROJECT REQUIREMENTS.

• todo_modules/ This folder contains a module to manage a todo list. This module is a working example of how a module can be created and plugged to the main server. Inside the views/ folder you can see how template ingeritance can be used. THIS CODE IS JUST AND EXAMPLE, IT CAN BE EDITED OR DELETED

• views/ This folder contains the base html templates used in the project. THe templates here are used in template inheritance by the server renderer. If you need to add/remove some base template to the project, please view the app/templates.go file first.

• main.go This file contains the code to run the server. This code should be edited only to add modules to the modulesToRegister slice.

How to create a new module

As it was said before, the landing_page/ folder contains the minimum code necessary in a module. To create a module you need a struct that implements the IAppModule interface defined in the app/modules.go file. This interface defines the methods that a module should implement to be plugged to the main server. Theinterface is:

type IAppModule interface {
    RegisterRoutes()
    RegisterTemplates()
}

The RegisterRoutes() method should contain the code to subscribe the routes and controllers to the main server. The RegisterTemplates() method should contain the code to subscribe the templates to the main server. The todo_module/modules.go file is a good example of how to implement this methods.

When the module struct is created, you only need to add it to the modulesToRegister slice in the main.go file. After doing this your module will be plugged to the main server and will be accesible in the routes you defined in the RegisterRoutes() method.

This architecture can be used to create an API too. You only need to use methods as c.JSON() defined by Echo. In this case you don't need to implemnt the RegisterTemplates() method of your module struct, just define it as an empty method to fulfill the IAppModule interface.

Install packages

To install the project packages run the command go get in the root directory of the project.

Run the project

First you need to create a .env as a copy of the .env.example file and fulfill it with values for the variables. After doing this, you just need to run the command go run main.go in the root directory of the project to execute the project.

I want to contribute to the project

If you want to contribute to the project, please feel free to fork the project and create a pull request with your changes. I will review it and add it to the project if it fits the project vision.

If you want to contact me, you can do it by my LinkedIn