DEV Community

Cover image for Apache rewrite for Go and Iris
Gerasimos (Makis) Maropoulos
Gerasimos (Makis) Maropoulos

Posted on • Updated on

Apache rewrite for Go and Iris

#go

Greetings gophers,

Today we'll take a quick look to a rewrite middleware that I've created 2 months ago for the Iris Web Framework.

We all remember the old good times, I assume, most of us used apache mod_rewrite in the past to map pattern with URL paths.

Rewrite is useful for Search engine optimization (SEO). It lets you convert an "ugly" path to a more human-readable one.

Without spending most of your time, let's start, the code speaks for itself.

First of all, install Iris version 12, if you haven't already(!):

go get github.com/kataras/iris/v12@master
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The rewrite middleware is a builtin package, so you don't need to install anything else.

The Rewrite Middleware supports rewrite URL path, subdomain or host based on a regular expression search and replace.

The syntax is familiar to the majority of the backend developers out there and it looks like that:

| REDIRECT_CODE_DIGITS | PATTERN_REGEX | TARGET_REPL |
|----------------------|---------------|-------------|
| 301                  | /seo/(.*)     | /$1         |
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The above will redirect all requests from relative path /seo/* to /* using the 301 (Moved Permanently) HTTP Status Code. Learn more about regex.

Usage

First of all, you should import the builtin middleware as follows:

import "github.com/kataras/iris/v12/middleware/rewrite"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

There are two ways to load rewrite options in order to parse and register the redirect rules:

1. Through a yaml or json file using the Load function. It is the most common scenario and the simplest one. It panics on parse errors.

func main() {
    app := iris.New()
    // [...routes]
    redirects := rewrite.Load("redirects.yml")
    app.WrapRouter(redirects)
    app.Listen(":80")
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

It is highly recommended that you should register the Rewrite Middleware as a Router Wrapper through Application.WrapRouter right before Application.Listen/Run.

The "redirects.yml" file looks like that:

RedirectMatch:
  # Redirects /seo/* to /*
  - 301 /seo/(.*) /$1

  # Redirects /docs/v12* to /docs
  - 301 /docs/v12(.*) /docs

  # Redirects /old(.*) to /
  - 301 /old(.*) /

  # Redirects http or https://test.* to http or https://newtest.*
  - 301 ^(http|https)://test.(.*) $1://newtest.$2

  # Handles /*.json or .xml as *?format=json or xml,
  # without redirect. See /users route.
  # When Code is 0 then it does not redirect the request,
  # instead it changes the request URL
  # and leaves a route handle the request.
  - 0 /(.*).(json|xml) /$1?format=$2

# Redirects root domain to www.
# Creation of a www subdomain inside the Application is unnecessary,
# all requests are handled by the root Application itself.
PrimarySubdomain: www
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

2. Through code using the New function. Parse errors can be handled and rules can be programmatically stored.

opts := rewrite.Options{
    RedirectMatch: []string{
        "301 /seo/(.*) /$1",
        "301 /docs/v12(.*) /docs",
        "301 /old(.*) /",
        "301 ^(http|https)://test.(.*) $1://newtest.$2",
        "0 /(.*).(json|xml) /$1?format=$2",
    },
    PrimarySubdomain: "www",
}
rw, err := rewrite.New(opts)
if err != nil { panic(err) }
app.WrapRouter(rw.Rewrite)
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Example

Let's write a simple application which follows the redirect rules of:

package main

import (
    "github.com/kataras/iris/v12"
    "github.com/kataras/iris/v12/middleware/rewrite"
)

func main() {
    app := iris.New()

    app.Get("/", index)
    app.Get("/about", about)
    app.Get("/docs", docs)
    app.Get("/users", listUsers)

    app.Subdomain("test").Get("/", testIndex)

    newtest := app.Subdomain("newtest")
    newtest.Get("/", newTestIndex)
    newtest.Get("/", newTestAbout)

    //
    redirects := rewrite.Load("redirects.yml")
    app.WrapRouter(redirects)
    // 

    app.Listen(":8080")
}

func index(ctx iris.Context) {
    ctx.WriteString("Index")
}

func about(ctx iris.Context) {
    ctx.WriteString("About")
}

func docs(ctx iris.Context) {
    ctx.WriteString("Docs")
}

func listUsers(ctx iris.Context) {
    format := ctx.URLParamDefault("format", "text")
    /*
        switch format{
            case "json":
                ctx.JSON(response)
            case "xml":
                ctx.XML(response)
            // [...]
        }
    */
    ctx.Writef("Format: %s", format)
}

func testIndex(ctx iris.Context) {
    ctx.WriteString(`Test Subdomain Index
                (This should never be executed,
                redirects to newtest subdomain)`)
}

func newTestIndex(ctx iris.Context) {
    ctx.WriteString("New Test Subdomain Index")
}

func newTestAbout(ctx iris.Context) {
    ctx.WriteString("New Test Subdomain About")
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Hosts File

127.0.0.1   mydomain.com
127.0.0.1   www.mydomain.com
127.0.0.1   test.mydomain.com
127.0.0.1   newtest.mydomain.com
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Navigate here if you don't know how to modify the system's hosts file.


Thanks for the reading! Please upvote the Post if you liked it. Feel free to follow my Twitter and GitHub. Have fun and be safe 🦾

Top comments (0)