chi
chi
is a small, fast and expressive router / mux for Go HTTP services built with net/context.
Chi encourages writing services by composing small handlers and middlewares with many or few routes.
Each middleware is like a layer of an onion connected through a consistent interface (http.Handler or
chi.Handler) and a context.Context argument that flows down the layers during a request's lifecycle.
In order to get the most out of this pattern, chi's routing methods (Get, Post, Handle, Mount, etc.)
support inline middlewares, middleware groups, and mounting (composing) any chi router to another -
a bushel of onions. We've designed the Pressly API (150+ routes/handlers) exactly like this and its
scaled very well.
Features
- Lightweight - cloc`d in ~600 LOC for the chi router
- Fast - yes, see benchmarks
- Expressive routing - middlewares, inline middleware groups/chains, and subrouter mounting
- Request context control (value chaining, deadlines and timeouts) - built on
net/context
- Robust (tested, used in production)
Router design
Chi's router is based on a kind of Patricia Radix trie.
Built on top of the tree is the Router
interface:
// Register a middleware handler (or few) on the middleware stack
Use(middlewares ...interface{})
// Register a new middleware stack
Group(fn func(r Router)) Router
// Mount an inline sub-router
Route(pattern string, fn func(r Router)) Router
// Mount a sub-router
Mount(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for all http methods
Handle(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for CONNECT http method
Connect(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for HEAD http method
Head(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for GET http method
Get(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for POST http method
Post(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for PUT http method
Put(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for PATCH http method
Patch(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for DELETE http method
Delete(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for TRACE http method
Trace(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
// Register routing handler for OPTIONS http method
Options(pattern string, handlers ...interface{})
Each routing method accepts a URL pattern
and chain of handlers
. The URL pattern
supports named params (ie. /users/:userID
) and wildcards (ie. /admin/*
).
The handlers
argument can be a single request handler, or a chain of middleware
handlers, followed by a request handler. The request handler is required, and must
be the last argument.
We lose type checking of the handlers, but that'll be resolved sometime in the future,
we hope, when Go's stdlib supports net/context in net/http. For now, chi checks the types
at runtime and panics in case of a mismatch.
The supported handlers are as follows..
Middleware handlers
// Standard HTTP middleware. Compatible and friendly for when a request context isn't needed.
func StdMiddleware(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
next.ServeHTTP(w, r)
})
}
// net/context HTTP middleware. Useful for signaling to stop processing, adding a timeout,
// cancellation, or passing data down the middleware chain.
func CtxMiddleware(next chi.Handler) chi.Handler {
return chi.HandlerFunc(func(ctx context.Context, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, "key", "value")
next.ServeHTTPC(ctx, w, r)
})
}
Request handlers
// Standard HTTP handler
func StdHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
w.Write([]byte("hi"))
}
// net/context HTTP request handler
func CtxHandler(ctx context.Context, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
userID := chi.URLParams(ctx)["userID"] // from a route like /users/:userID
key := ctx.Value("key").(string)
w.Write([]byte(fmt.Sprintf("hi %v, %v", userID, key)))
}
net/context?
net/context
is a tiny library written by Sameer Ajmani that provides
a simple interface to signal context across call stacks and goroutines.
Learn more at https://blog.golang.org/context
and..
Examples
Examples:
- simple - The power of handler composability
- rest - REST apis made easy; includes a simple JSON responder
Preview:
import (
//...
"github.com/pressly/chi"
"github.com/pressly/chi/middleware"
"golang.org/x/net/context"
)
func main() {
r := chi.NewRouter()
// A good base middleware stack
r.Use(middleware.RequestID)
r.Use(middleware.RealIP)
r.Use(middleware.Logger)
r.Use(middleware.Recoverer)
// When a client closes their connection midway through a request, the
// http.CloseNotifier will cancel the request context (ctx).
r.Use(middleware.CloseNotify)
// Set a timeout value on the request context (ctx), that will signal
// through ctx.Done() that the request has timed out and further
// processing should be stopped.
r.Use(middleware.Timeout(60 * time.Second))
r.Get("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
w.Write([]byte("hi"))
})
// RESTy routes for "articles" resource
r.Route("/articles", func(r chi.Router) {
r.Get("/", paginate, listArticles) // GET /articles
r.Post("/", createArticle) // POST /articles
r.Route("/:articleID", func(r chi.Router) {
r.Use(ArticleCtx)
r.Get("/", getArticle) // GET /articles/123
r.Put("/", updateArticle) // PUT /articles/123
r.Delete("/", deleteArticle) // DELETE /articles/123
})
})
// Mount the admin sub-router
r.Mount("/admin", adminRouter())
http.ListenAndServe(":3333", r)
}
func ArticleCtx(next chi.Handler) chi.Handler {
return chi.HandlerFunc(func(ctx context.Context, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
articleID := chi.URLParams(ctx)["articleID"]
article, err := dbGetArticle(articleID)
if err != nil {
http.Error(w, http.StatusText(404), 404)
return
}
ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, "article", article)
next.ServeHTTPC(ctx, w, r)
})
}
func getArticle(ctx context.Context, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
article, ok := ctx.Value("article").(*Article)
if !ok {
http.Error(w, http.StatusText(422), 422)
return
}
w.Write([]byte(fmt.Sprintf("title:%s", article.Title)))
}
// A completely separate router for administrator routes
func adminRouter() chi.Router {
r := chi.NewRouter()
r.Use(AdminOnly)
r.Get("/", adminIndex)
r.Get("/accounts", adminListAccounts)
return r
}
func AdminOnly(next chi.Handler) chi.Handler {
return chi.HandlerFunc(func(ctx context.Context, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
perm, ok := ctx.Value("acl.permission").(YourPermissionType)
if !ok || !perm.IsAdmin() {
http.Error(w, http.StatusText(403), 403)
return
}
next.ServeHTTPC(ctx, w, r)
})
}
Middlewares
Chi comes equipped with an optional middleware
package, providing:
Middleware |
Description |
RequestID |
Injects a request ID into the context of each request. |
RealIP |
Sets a http.Request's RemoteAddr to either X-Forwarded-For or X-Real-IP. |
Logger |
Logs the start and end of each request with the elapsed processing time. |
Recoverer |
Gracefully absorb panics and prints the stack trace. |
NoCache |
Sets response headers to prevent clients from caching. |
CloseNotify |
Signals to the request context when a client has closed their connection. |
Timeout |
Signals to the request context when the timeout deadline is reached. |
Throttle |
Puts a ceiling on the number of concurrent requests. |
Other middlewares:
please submit a PR if you'd like to include a link to a chi middleware
Future
We're hoping that by Go 1.7 (in 2016), net/context
will be in the Go stdlib and net/http
will
support context.Context
. You'll notice that chi.Handler and http.Handler are very similar
and the middleware signatures follow the same structure. One day chi.Handler will be deprecated
and the router will live on just as it is without any dependencies beyond stdlib. And... then, we
have infinitely more middlewares to compose from the community!!
See discussions:
Benchmarks
The benchmark suite: https://github.com/pkieltyka/go-http-routing-benchmark
The results as of Nov. 6, 2015 - https://gist.github.com/pkieltyka/505b07b09f5c63e36ef5
Note: by design, chi allocates new routing URLParams map for each request, as opposed
to reusing URLParams from a pool.
Credits
TODO
- Mux options
- Trailing slash?
- Case insensitive paths?
- GET for HEAD requests (auto fallback)?
- Register not found handler
- Register error handler (500's)
- HTTP2 example
- both http 1.1 and http2 automatically.. just turn it on :)
- Websocket example
- Regexp support in router "/:id([0-9]+)" or "#id^[0-9]+$" or ..
We'll be more than happy to see your contributions!
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Peter Kieltyka
Licensed under MIT License