Go ServeMux

last modified April 11, 2024

In this article we show how to do request routing and dispatching in Golang with ServeMux.

HTTP

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP protocol is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

ServeMux

ServeMux is an HTTP request multiplexer. It is used for request routing and dispatching. The request routing is based on URL patterns. Each incoming request’s URL is matched against a list of registered patterns. A handler for the pattern that most closely fits the URL is called.

Go NewServeMux

The NewServeMux function allocates and returns a new ServeMux.

main.go

package main

import ( “log” “net/http” “time” )

func main() {

mux := http.NewServeMux()

now := time.Now()

mux.HandleFunc("/today", func(rw http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {

    rw.Write([]byte(now.Format(time.ANSIC)))
})

log.Println("Listening...")
http.ListenAndServe(":3000", mux)

}

The example creates an HTTP server which returns the current datetime for the /today URL pattern.

mux := http.NewServeMux()

A new ServeMux is created.

mux.HandleFunc("/today", func(rw http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {

rw.Write([]byte(now.Format(time.ANSIC)))

})

A handle to the /today pattern is added with HandleFunc function.

http.ListenAndServe(":3000", mux)

The created multiplexer is passed to the ListenAndServe function.

Go DefaultServeMux

DefaultServeMux is a just a ServeMux. It is used when we pass nil to the ListenAndServe method for the second parameter.

The http.Handle and http.HandleFunc global functions use the DefaultServeMux multiplexer.

main.go

package main

import ( “fmt” “log” “net/http” )

func main() {

http.HandleFunc("/", HelloHandler)

log.Println("Listening...")
log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":3000", nil))

}

func HelloHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {

fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello there!")

}

The example uses the default multiplexer.

Custom handler

The func (*ServeMux) Handle registers the handler for the given pattern.

The http.HandlerFunc is an adapter that turns a function, if it has the right signature, into an http.Handler.

main.go

package main

import ( “fmt” “log” “net/http” )

type helloHandler struct { }

func (h *helloHandler) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {

fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello there!")

}

func main() {

mux := http.NewServeMux()

hello := &helloHandler{}
mux.Handle("/hello", hello)

log.Println("Listening...")
http.ListenAndServe(":3000", mux)

}

In the example, we create a custom handler.

type helloHandler struct { }

A new type is declared.

func (h *helloHandler) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {

fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello there!")

}

To become a handler, the type must implement the ServeHTTP function.

hello := &helloHandler{} mux.Handle("/hello", hello)

We create the handler and pass it to the Handle function.

Source

Go net/http package - reference

In this article we have showed how to do request routing and dispatching in Go with ServeMux.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

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