apifaker can help you start a json api server in a fast way.

If you would like to start a simple json api server for testing front-end, apifaker could be a great fit.

No need of database, just create some json files, and write two line codes, then, everything is done, you can start implementing the happy(hope so) front-end features.

Example project

go get github.com/Focinfi/apifaker

apifaker need a directory for containing the api json files.

Rules:

1. "resource_name" string(required), resource name for this api routes, you can treat it as table name in a database. apifaker assumes that resource name is plural.

2. "has_many" array(optional), every element must be a string of one of the other "resource_name", if a resource's "has_many" is not empty:

   1. The response of GET /collention/:id and GET /collention will be insert the related resources.
   2. The DELETE /collention/:id will also delete the related resources.

3. "has_one" array(optional), its rules are same as of the "has_many" except every element must be singular and the response of GET /collention/:id and GET /collention will be only insert the a first-found item.

4. "columns" array(required), columuns for resource, only support "id" "name", "type", "regexp_pattern", "unique"

   1. "id" must be a "number" as the first cloumn.
   2. Every colmun must have at lest a "name" and a "type".
   3. "type" supports: "boolean" "number" "string" "array" "object", these types will be used to check every item data.
   4. "regexp_pattern" add regular expression for validating your string-type column, using internal regexp package, you could run go doc regexp/syntax to learn all syntax.
   5. "unique": set true(default false) to specify this column should be unique.

5. "seed" array(optional), initial data for this resource, note that every lineitem of seeds should have columns descriped in "columns" array, otherwise, it will throw an non-nil error.

Here is an example for users.json

{
    "resource_name": "users",
    "has_many": [
        "books"
    ],
    "columns": [
        {
            "name": "id",
            "type": "number"
        },
        {
            "name": "name",
            "type": "string",
            "regexp_pattern": "[A-z]|[0-9]",
            "unique": true
        },
        {
            "name": "phone",
            "type": "string",
            "regexp_pattern": "^132",
            "unique": true
        },
        {
            "name": "age",
            "type": "number"
        }
    ],
    "seeds": [
        {
            "id": 1,
            "name": "Frank",
            "phone": "13213213213",
            "age": 22
        },
        {
            "id": 2,
            "name": "Antony",
            "phone": "13213213211",
            "age": 22
        },
        {
            "id": 3,
            "name": "Foci",
            "phone": "13213213212",
            "age": 22
        }
    ]
}

And books.json

{
    "resource_name": "books",
    "columns": [
        {
            "name": "id",
            "type": "number"
        },
        {
            "name": "title",
            "type": "string",
            "regexp_pattern": "[A-z]|[0-9]",
            "unique": true
        },
        {
            "name": "user_id",
            "type": "number"
        }
        
    ],
    "seeds": [
        {
            "id": 1,
            "title": "The Little Prince",
            "user_id": 1
        },
        {
            "id": 2,
            "title": "Life of Pi",
            "user_id": 2
        },
        {
            "id": 3,
            "title": "The Alchemist",
            "user_id": 1
        }
    ]
}

// if there are any errors of the directory or json file unmarshaling, err will not be nil
fakeApi, err := apifaker.NewWithApiDir("/path/to/your/fake_apis")

And you can use it as a http.Handler to listen and serve on a port:

http.ListenAndServe(":3000", fakeApi)

Now almost everything is done, if we use the above users.json and books.json for the fakerApi, then you have a list of restful apis for users and books:

GET    /users                   
GET    /users/:id               
POST   /users                   
PUT    /users/:id               
PATCH  /users/:id               
DELETE /users/:id

GET    /books                   
GET    /books/:id               
POST   /books                   
PUT    /books/:id               
PATCH  /books/:id               
DELETE /books/:id

And this apis are really be able to manage the users and books resource, just like using database, what's more, it will validate every request using the rules defined in "columns", in this example, rules are:

0. every request: resource with the given id must exist.
1. name of users and books must be unique and users'name must contain A-Z or 0-9.
2. phone of users must has prefix "132".
3. every POST/PATH/PUT request of books: the user with given user_id must exist.

In a word, it acts like a standard restful api server.

apifaker will save automatically the changes back to the json file once 24 hours and when you handlers panic something. On the other hand, you can save data manually by calling a method directly:

fakeApi.SaveTofile()

Also, you can integrate other mutex which implemnets http.Handler into the fakeApi, to differetiate faker api from extenal mutex, you can give fakeApi a prefix:

mux := http.NewServeMux()
mux.HandleFunc("/greet", func(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
rw.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
rw.Write([]byte("hello world"))
})

fakeApi.MountTo("/fake_api")
faker.IntegrateHandler(mux)
http.ListenAndServe("localhost:3000", fakeApi)

Then, /greet will be available, at the same time, users and books apis will change to be:

GET     /fake_api/users                   
GET     /fake_api/users/:id               
POST    /fake_api/users                   
PUT     /fake_api/users/:id               
PATCH   /fake_api/users/:id               
DELETE  /fake_api/users/:id

GET     /fake_api/books                   
GET     /fake_api/books/:id               
POST    /fake_api/books                   
PUT     /fake_api/books/:id               
PATCH   /fake_api/books/:id               
DELETE  /fake_api/books/:id