Creating a Serverless Go Web Application on Google Cloud

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Prerequisites
  3. Setup
  4. Creating a Serverless Go Web Application
  5. Deploying the Web Application
  6. Conclusion

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a serverless Go web application on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). We will use Google Cloud Functions, a serverless execution environment, to host our Go application. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a fully functional serverless web application that can handle HTTP requests.

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, you should have:

  • Basic knowledge of Go programming language.
  • A Google Cloud Platform account.
  • The Google Cloud SDK installed on your machine.

Setup

To begin, follow these steps:

  1. Install the Google Cloud SDK by following the instructions provided in the official documentation.
  2. Set up authentication by running gcloud auth login in your terminal and following the prompts.

  3. Create a new project in the Google Cloud Console if you haven’t already.

  4. Enable the necessary APIs. Go to the API Library in the Google Cloud Console and enable the following APIs: - Cloud Functions API - Identity and Access Management (IAM) API

Creating a Serverless Go Web Application

  1. Open your favorite text editor and create a new file named main.go.

  2. Start by importing the necessary packages:

    ```go
package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
)
```

  3. Define a handler function that will be responsible for handling HTTP requests:

    ```go
func handler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	fmt.Fprint(w, "Hello, World!")
}
```

This handler function simply writes "Hello, World!" as the response.

  4. Define a main function that sets up the HTTP server and starts listening for incoming requests:

    ```go
func main() {
	http.HandleFunc("/", handler)
	log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":"+os.Getenv("PORT"), nil))
}
```

The `os.Getenv("PORT")` retrieves the port number provided by the hosting environment when your application is deployed.

  5. Save the main.go file.

Deploying the Web Application

  1. Open your terminal and navigate to the directory containing the main.go file.

  2. Build the Go application by running the following command:

    ```bash
go build -o serverless-webapp
```

This will create an executable named `serverless-webapp`.

  3. Deploy the Go application to Google Cloud Functions by running the following command:

    ```bash
gcloud functions deploy serverless-webapp --runtime go111 --trigger-http --allow-unauthenticated
```

This command deploys the application as a Cloud Function, assigns it the name `serverless-webapp`, and sets it to trigger on HTTP requests.

  4. After a successful deployment, the terminal will display a URL endpoint for your serverless web application.

  5. Open your web browser and visit the provided URL endpoint. You should see the “Hello, World!” message displayed.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully created a serverless Go web application on Google Cloud Platform using the Cloud Functions service. You learned how to set up the project, write a simple Go web application, and deploy it to the cloud. You can now expand and customize your serverless application to handle more complex tasks and serve dynamic content.

In this tutorial, we covered the following categories: Networking and Web Programming, Functions and Packages. By following the step-by-step instructions, you have gained practical knowledge and experience in building serverless Go applications on Google Cloud. Remember to explore further and take advantage of other Google Cloud services to enhance your serverless application.

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