Blogging Platform API

A simple RESTful API with basic CRUD operations for a personal blogging platform built with Go, Gorilla Mux, and PostgreSQL.

Built as a learning project for Backend Roadmap on roadmap.sh.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Tech Stack
• Prerequisites
• Getting Started - Local Development Setup
• API Endpoints
  • Create Blog Post
  • Update Blog Post
  • Delete Blog Post
  • Get Single Blog Post
  • Get All Blog Posts
  • Search Blog Posts
• Project Structure
• Error Handling

Features

• ✅ Create new blog posts
• ✅ Update existing blog posts
• ✅ Delete blog posts
• ✅ Retrieve a single blog post by ID
• ✅ Retrieve all blog posts
• ✅ Search blog posts by term (searches in title, content, and category)
• ✅ Request ID tracking for debugging
• ✅ Comprehensive logging middleware
• ✅ Input validation with proper error responses

Tech Stack

• Language: Go 1.24
• Web Framework: Gorilla Mux
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Environment Management: godotenv
• Database Driver: lib/pq

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24 or higher
• PostgreSQL 12 or higher
• Git

Getting Started - Local Development Setup

Follow these steps to set up the project on your local machine:

Step 1: Install Prerequisites

Install Go

• macOS:

  brew install go

• Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install golang-go

• Windows: Download and install from golang.org/dl

Verify installation:

go version

Install PostgreSQL

• macOS:

  brew install postgresql@15
  brew services start postgresql@15

• Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib
  sudo systemctl start postgresql
  sudo systemctl enable postgresql

• Windows: Download and install from postgresql.org/download

Verify installation:

psql --version

Step 2: Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/architxkumar/Blogging-Platform-API.git
cd Blogging-Platform-API

Step 3: Install Go Dependencies

go mod download

Step 4: Set Up PostgreSQL Database

1. Create a PostgreSQL user (if needed):

   # On macOS/Linux, switch to postgres user
   sudo -u postgres psql
   
   # Or connect directly
   psql postgres

   Inside PostgreSQL prompt:

   CREATE USER your_username WITH PASSWORD 'your_password';
   ALTER USER your_username CREATEDB;
   \q

2. Create the database:

   # Connect to PostgreSQL
   psql -U your_username -d postgres

   Inside PostgreSQL prompt:

   CREATE DATABASE blogs;
   \q

3. Run the schema to create tables:

   psql -U your_username -d blogs -f internal/db/schema.sql

4. (Optional) Load sample data for testing:

   psql -U your_username -d blogs -f internal/db/sample_posts_insert.sql

Step 5: Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env.development file in the root directory of the project:

# Create the file
touch .env.development

Add the following configuration (update with your PostgreSQL credentials):

PGHOST=localhost
PGPORT=5432
PGUSER=your_username
PGPASSWORD=your_password
PGSSLNEGOTIATION=disable
PGDATABASE=blogs

Example:

PGHOST=localhost
PGPORT=5432
PGUSER=architxkumar
PGPASSWORD=architxkumar
PGSSLNEGOTIATION=disable
PGDATABASE=blogs

Step 6: Run the Application

Start the server:

go run main.go

You should see output indicating the server is running. The API will be available at http://localhost:8080

Step 7: Test the API

Test that the API is working by making a request:

Using curl:

# Get all posts
curl http://localhost:8080/posts

# Create a new post
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/posts \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": "My First Blog Post",
    "content": "This is the content of my first blog post.",
    "category": "Technology",
    "tags": ["Tech", "Programming"]
  }'

Using a browser:

• Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080/posts
• You should see a JSON response with all blog posts

Troubleshooting

Database connection errors:

• Verify PostgreSQL is running: pg_isready
• Check your credentials in .env.development
• Ensure the database blogs exists: psql -U your_username -l

Port already in use:

• The application runs on port 8080 by default
• Check if another application is using the port: lsof -i :8080 (macOS/Linux)
• Kill the process or modify the port in main.go

Go module errors:

• Delete go.sum and run go mod download again
• Run go mod tidy to clean up dependencies

API Endpoints

Create Blog Post

Create a new blog post.

Endpoint: POST /posts

Request Body:

{
  "title": "My First Blog Post",
  "content": "This is the content of my first blog post.",
  "category": "Technology",
  "tags": ["Tech", "Programming"]
}

Validation Rules:

• title: Required, maximum 255 characters
• content: Required
• category: Optional, maximum 30 characters
• tags: Optional, array of strings

Success Response (201 Created):

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "My First Blog Post",
  "content": "This is the content of my first blog post.",
  "category": "Technology",
  "tags": ["Tech", "Programming"],
  "created_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z"
}

Error Responses:

• 400 Bad Request - Invalid JSON format or empty request body
• 422 Unprocessable Entity - Validation errors (empty title, title too long, empty content, category too long)

---

Update Blog Post

Update an existing blog post.

Endpoint: PUT /posts/{id}

URL Parameters:

• id (integer, required) - The ID of the blog post to update

Request Body:

{
  "title": "My Updated Blog Post",
  "content": "This is the updated content of my first blog post.",
  "category": "Technology",
  "tags": ["Tech", "Programming", "Updated"]
}

Validation Rules:

• Same as Create Blog Post
• ID must be a positive integer

Success Response (200 OK):

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "My Updated Blog Post",
  "content": "This is the updated content of my first blog post.",
  "category": "Technology",
  "tags": ["Tech", "Programming", "Updated"],
  "created_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2021-09-01T12:30:00Z"
}

Error Responses:

• 400 Bad Request - Invalid ID format or validation errors
• 404 Not Found - Blog post with the given ID not found
• 422 Unprocessable Entity - Validation errors

---

Delete Blog Post

Delete an existing blog post.

Endpoint: DELETE /posts/{id}

URL Parameters:

• id (integer, required) - The ID of the blog post to delete

Success Response (204 No Content): No response body

Error Responses:

• 400 Bad Request - Invalid ID format
• 404 Not Found - Blog post with the given ID not found

---

Get Single Blog Post

Retrieve a single blog post by ID.

Endpoint: GET /posts/{id}

URL Parameters:

• id (integer, required) - The ID of the blog post to retrieve

Success Response (200 OK):

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "My First Blog Post",
  "content": "This is the content of my first blog post.",
  "category": "Technology",
  "tags": ["Tech", "Programming"],
  "created_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z"
}

Error Responses:

• 400 Bad Request - Invalid ID format
• 404 Not Found - Blog post with the given ID not found

---

Get All Blog Posts

Retrieve all blog posts.

Endpoint: GET /posts

Success Response (200 OK):

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "My First Blog Post",
    "content": "This is the content of my first blog post.",
    "category": "Technology",
    "tags": ["Tech", "Programming"],
    "created_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z"
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "title": "My Second Blog Post",
    "content": "This is the content of my second blog post.",
    "category": "Lifestyle",
    "tags": ["Life", "Tips"],
    "created_at": "2021-09-01T12:30:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2021-09-01T12:30:00Z"
  }
]

---

Search Blog Posts

Search and filter blog posts by a search term. The search is performed on the title, content, and category fields using a wildcard (LIKE) query.

Endpoint: GET /posts?term={search_term}

Query Parameters:

• term (string, optional) - Search term to filter posts

Example Request:

GET /posts?term=tech

This will return all blog posts that contain "tech" (case-insensitive) in their title, content, or category.

Success Response (200 OK):

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "My First Blog Post",
    "content": "This is the content about technology.",
    "category": "Technology",
    "tags": ["Tech", "Programming"],
    "created_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2021-09-01T12:00:00Z"
  }
]

Notes:

• If no term parameter is provided, all posts are returned (same as Get All Blog Posts)
• The search is case-insensitive
• The search performs a wildcard match (partial matching)

---

Project Structure

Blogging-Platform-API/
├── main.go                    # Application entry point
├── internal/
│   ├── handler/               # HTTP request handlers
│   │   ├── task_creation.go   # POST /posts handler
│   │   ├── task_updation.go   # PUT /posts/{id} handler
│   │   ├── deletion.go        # DELETE /posts/{id} handler
│   │   └── retrival.go        # GET /posts and /posts/{id} handlers
│   ├── middleware/            # HTTP middlewares
│   │   ├── logging.go         # Request logging
│   │   ├── request_id.go      # Request ID generation
│   │   └── validation.go      # Input validation
│   ├── model/                 # Data models
│   │   └── post.go            # Post and PostDTO structs
│   └── db/                    # Database files
│       ├── schema.sql         # Database schema
│       └── sample_posts_insert.sql  # Sample data
├── .env.development           # Environment configuration
├── go.mod                     # Go module definition
└── README.md                  # This file

Error Handling

The API uses standard HTTP status codes:

• 200 OK - Successful GET or PUT request
• 201 Created - Successful POST request
• 204 No Content - Successful DELETE request
• 400 Bad Request - Invalid request format or parameters
• 404 Not Found - Resource not found
• 422 Unprocessable Entity - Validation errors
• 500 Internal Server Error - Server-side errors

All error responses include a descriptive error message in the response body.

Features Not Implemented

The following features are intentionally not implemented as per project requirements:

• Pagination
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Rate limiting

---

License: MIT

Author: Archit Kumar

Repository: https://github.com/architxkumar/Blogging-Platform-API

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Note: This README documentation was generated with AI assistance due to time constraints. However, all the API implementation logic, database schema, handlers, middleware, and core functionality were developed by Archit Kumar.