Preface

Initially, SOAP-based web services became more popular with XML. Then, since 2012,  REST picked up the pace and gulped SOAP in whole. The rise of a new generation of web languages, such as Python, JavaScript (Node.js), and Go, showed a different approach to web development compared to the traditional ones, such as ASP.NET and Spring. Since this decade, Go has become more and more popular due to its speed and intuitiveness. Less verbose code, strict type checking, and support for concurrency make Go a better choice for writing any web backend. Some of the best tools, such as Docker and Kubernetes, are written in Go. Google uses Go a lot in its daily activities. You can see a list of Go-using companies at https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/GoUsers.

For any internet company, the web development department is crucial. Data that the company accumulates needs to be served to the clients in form of an API or web service. Various clients (browser, mobile application, and server) consume API every day. REST is an architectural pattern that defines resource consumption in the form of methods.

Go is a better language to write web servers. It is the responsibility of an intermediate Go developer to know how to create RESTful services using the constructs available in the language. Once the basics are understood, the developer should learn other things, such as testing, optimizing, and deploying services. This book is an attempt to make the reader comfortable with developing web services.

Experts think that in the near future, as Python is moving into the Data Science space and competing with R, Go can emerge as the single go-to language in the web development space by competing with NodeJS. This book is not a cookbook. However, it offers many tips and tricks throughout your journey. By the end of the book, the reader will be comfortable with REST API development through a multitude of examples. They will also come to know about the latest practices, such as protocol buffers/gRPC/API Gateway, which will move their knowledge to the next level.