I’ll be writing about the two well-known Golang frameworks, Gorilla Mux and Gin Web Framework, in this blog. This blog will be helpful to golang developers who are new to golang. Two open-source libraries, Gin and Mux, are extensively employed in the development of APIs and web programs.
I’ll compare their features so you can make an informed decision about which to employ and when depending on your project. I’ll discuss two APIs in addition to the theoretical justification; one is based on the Gin Web Framework, and the other is based on Gorilla Mux. This would let you see the similarities and differences between the two frameworks clearly.
Prerequisites
Here, both Gin and Mux were created using Golang, you should be well-versed in it. As a result, it is crucial that you comprehend the syntax of the language. You need to understand the fundamental ideas behind web development and overall golang development. A fundamental understanding of web development principles like routing, middleware, and request handling will be helpful because this blog will cover the use of Gin and Mux for developing online apps and APIs.
Since both Gin and Mux use HTTP to handle requests and responses, it’s also crucial to be familiar with them. As a result, you will benefit from this blog’s information if you have a basic understanding of how HTTP functions. The concepts covered in this blog should be easy for you to follow if you have a basic understanding of the above.
Models & Database Setup
I will begin with struct first, which contains,
- The primary key for the user in the MongoDB collection is a Mongo Object ID, specifically of the “primitive.ObjectID” type. However, I did not use primitive for Mux. Refer to Image 2 for more information.
- The user’s name is represented by a string variable named “name”.
- The user’s age is represented by an integer variable named “age”.
API based on GIN
I’ll start with the key point here. Go file and create a POST API using the Gin Web Framework. The “CreateUser” function from the “controllers” package, which listens on port 8080, handles POST requests to the URL “/createuser,” which is established by the server in the code above. The router additionally makes use of logger middleware. The “log.Fatal” function is used when the server is started, and if there is an issue, it will terminate the application with a non-zero exit code.
I’ve mentioned the packages and set the variable UserCollection in the controller section. A function called CreateUser was developed by the group. It links the information from the request body to the User struct.
If there is a problem, a JSON response with the error message is returned. A JSON response with a status code of 500 was returned after I used the insert method, and if the insert operation failed, an error message was also returned. A JSON response with a success message and status code 200 is delivered if it is successful. It makes use of the go mongo driver to interface with the mongodb. For more clarity, please refer to Image 4.
API based on Mux
I’ll explain the code for an API built using the Gorilla Mux Framework in this section of the blog. The discussion will just deal with the CreateUser API’s POST method. The main directory will have the main.go and go.mod files, in addition to the controller, database, and models folders, each of which contains the models.go, databasesetup.go, and controller.go files, respectively.
I initially listed the imports for the “net/http,” “Mux,” and “controller” packages in the main.go file.
After creating the main function, which will serve as the program’s entry point and declare r as a variable with “mux.Newrouter” init, I built a URL called “/createuser” that calls the controller package’s functions. I’ve also employed the POST approach. I then gave the program the “ListenAndServe” method command to launch the server on port 8080. Please see image 5 below for the main.go.
Let’s move on to the controller portion now. I began by declaring a variable named Collection of type “*mongo.Collection” that contains the database after mentioning the necessary packages in the controller.
After the creation of the variables, I started with the function, ”CreateUser”. Here in the “CreateUser” function, I took two parameters i.e., w of type http.ResponseWriter and r of type http.Request. Once the request body has been decoded as a JSON object, the function puts it in a variable of type “models.User.” The user is then added to a MongoDB collection using a MongoDB driver.
It returns after setting the proper status code if any mistakes are made while decoding or insertion. It changes the status code to OK if it is successful. For clarity of the concept, Please refer to Image 6 which has the code in it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Gin and Mux are both popular choices for creating APIs in Go, but they have some distinct differences. Gin is a high-performance web framework that is built on top of the httprouter package. It provides a simple and easy-to-use API with a lot of built-in features such as request routing, middleware, and request binding. It also offers great performance, with benchmarks showing that it’s one of the fastest web frameworks for Go.
Additionally, it has a lot of third-party middleware that can be plugged in to easily extend the functionality of your API. On the other hand, Mux is a powerful request router and dispatcher that is built on top of the standard http package. It provides a simple and lightweight API that is easy to use and understand. It also offers great performance, but it is slightly slower than Gin.
However, it doesn’t have as many built-in features or third-party middleware. Both Gin and Mux are great choices for creating APIs in Go, but they are suited to different use cases. If you’re looking for a high-performance web framework with a lot of built-in features and third-party middleware, then Gin is the better choice.
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However, if you’re looking for a simple and lightweight solution that is easy to use and understand, then Mux is the better choice. Ultimately, the choice between Gin and Mux will depend on your specific needs and the requirements of your project. In summary, Gin and Mux both are great choices for creating APIs in Go, however, Gin is a high-performance web framework that is built on top of the httprouter package and provides a simple and easy-to-use API with a lot of built-in features.
Mux on the other hand is a powerful request router and dispatcher that is built on top of the standard http package and provides a simple and lightweight API that is easy to use and understand. Both have their pros and cons and it depends on the specific needs of your project.
