Today, we are going to demonstrate how one could serve static site/ content using golang’s net/http or using gorilla/mux. Let us create base for this. First we would create a directory
mkdir my-static-site
cd my-static-siteNow lets bootstrap our project by puting in some example files
touch http_ex.go
mkdir assets
mkdir assets/css
touch assets/index.html
touch assets/css/application.cssNow let us put in some stuff in assets/index.html
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Serving static files using go</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/application.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Lorem Ipsum sit amet</h1>
<p>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed porta sem in tellus lacinia, vitae gravida ex lobortis. Pellentesque quam enim, egestas sit amet mauris a, auctor luctus mauris. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Suspendisse potenti. Fusce mattis bibendum massa, in mattis tellus pulvinar at. Sed fermentum, orci sit amet facilisis ultrices, sapien felis aliquam justo, a sodales ante mi vel risus. Mauris non varius justo. Aliquam ultricies pharetra magna, ac porttitor lorem venenatis nec. Sed scelerisque eleifend efficitur. Phasellus sollicitudin odio at odio dapibus sagittis. Vestibulum sem libero, consectetur ut lorem eu, rhoncus tristique dolor. Nullam dui ex, blandit a euismod id, vestibulum sit amet libero.
</p>
<p>
Sed suscipit, magna a sollicitudin posuere, massa urna hendrerit tortor, ac rutrum risus turpis quis velit. Morbi lobortis tellus sed massa finibus rhoncus. Vivamus vel tellus metus. Donec ultrices nec turpis quis lacinia. Integer vitae nibh a ligula tincidunt mollis ultricies nec tortor. Morbi ullamcorper laoreet lorem, sed dictum libero pharetra nec. Morbi id orci eu massa blandit iaculis.
</p>
</body>
</html>Put in some content in assets/css/application.css as well
h1{
color: #555;
}
p{
text-align: right;
}Okay, so we are done with our example static site, now we need to serve this using golang http package found at net/http. Put code as mentioned below in http_ex.go
// file http_ex.go
package main
import (
"log"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
assets := http.StripPrefix("/", http.FileServer(http.Dir("assets/")))
http.Handle("/", assets)
log.Println("Listening at port 3000")
log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":3000", nil))
}So what we did here is mounted our filesystem at root path /, calling http.StripPrefix was not necessary here but, it becomes necessary when we deploy it at subpath like assets. No sit back and fire go run http_ex.go and browse localhost:3000
All done, now to to same using gorilla/mux, we would touch upon a new file mux_ex.go. Content of the file would look like
// file mux_ex.go
package main
import (
"log"
"net/http"
"github.com/gorilla/mux"
)
func main() {
r := mux.NewRouter()
r.PathPrefix("/").Handler(http.StripPrefix("/", http.FileServer(http.Dir("assets/"))))
log.Println("Listening at port 3000")
http.ListenAndServe(":3000", r)
}Again PathPrefix was not required here but it would, when one would like to deploy on subpath like /blog
Entire codebase for this post can be found on GoStatic@github
About The Author
I am Pankaj Baagwan, a System Design Architect. A Computer Scientist by heart, process enthusiast, and open source author/contributor/writer. Advocates Karma. Love working with cutting edge, fascinating, open source technologies.
To consult Pankaj Bagwan on System Design, Cyber Security and Application Development, SEO and SMO, please reach out at me[at]bagwanpankaj[dot]com
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Stay tuned <3. Signing off for RAAM