Basic CRUD API written in Golang using Gin, GORM, and PostgreSQL

Hi my name is Rashid Ali, I recently started learning about Golang and I have decided to document it so that it can be helpful for other people who are getting started as well.

Features

• RESTful API with CRUD operations.
• Database migrations using GORM.
• Dockerized environments.
• Environment variable support for configuration.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have the following installed:

• Git
• Golang
• Docker (Optional)
• Docker Compose (Optional)

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/rashidkalwar/go-crud.git
cd go-crud

2. Setup environment variables

• Create a .env file in the root directory of the repository and define two variables.
• First is the port the server will listen to eg. PORT=8080
• Second is the Database URL eg. DB_URL="postgres://<username>:<password>@<IpAddress>:<PORT>".

Note: If you have PostgreSQL installed on your system you can use that OR use Docker to spin up a PostgreSQL database OR use a free online PostgreSQL database. I would suggest Supabase it has a generous free tier and a ton of other features. Here is a Youtube video showing you how to do that.

3. Download the dependencies

Ensure that you have Go installed. Download the necessary dependencies using the following command:

go mod tidy

4. Make database migrations

Before running the API, Make sure to make all the migrations to the database by running the following command:

go run migrate/migrate.go

5. Run the application

To start the application locally, run the following command, Once the application is running, you can access the API at http://localhost:8080

go run cmd/main.go

Run using docker container:

To run the application using docker container, first create an image using following command:

docker build -t image-name .

After creating an image, spin up docker a container using this image, make sure to pass in the Environment variables:

docker run --name container-name -p 8080:8080 -e PORT=8080 -e DB_URL="postgres://<username>:<password>@<IpAddress>:<PORT>" image-name

Run using docker-compose:

If you have docker and docker-compose installed you don't need to do much inorder to run the application, just run the following command and it will start the application.

docker-compose up --build

6. Testing the API

You can use tools like Postman or cURL to test the API endpoints. Below is an example using "cURL":

curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/todos

Contact

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out:

• GitHub: rashidkalwar