Iris Web Framework

Iris is a fast, simple yet fully featured and very efficient web framework for Go.

Iris provides a beautifully expressive and easy to use foundation for your next website or API.

Iris offers a complete and decent solution and support for all gophers around the globe.

Learn what others say about Iris and star this github repository to stay up to date.

Installation

The only requirement is the Go Programming Language

$ go get -u github.com/kataras/iris

Iris takes advantage of the vendor directory feature. You get truly reproducible builds, as this method guards against upstream renames and deletes.

Updated at: Tuesday, 21 November 2017

Benchmarks from third-party source over the rest web frameworks

Known issues for code editors and IDEs at general

VS Code

For some reason the latest vscode-go language extension does not provide enough intelligence for the iris.Context type alias (input parameters documentation and definition navigation). Probably you have already experienced this issue with other Go libraries too, it is not an iris-specific issue, it is a general issue for all Golang type aliases.

Therefore if you use VS Code and you need these editor's features, import the original path; add an extra import statement of the original path of the Context, that will do it:

import (
    "github.com/kataras/iris"
    "github.com/kataras/iris/context" // <- HERE
)

Philosophy

The Iris philosophy is to provide robust tooling for HTTP, making it a great solution for single page applications, web sites, hybrids, or public HTTP APIs. Keep note that, so far, iris is the fastest web framework ever created in terms of performance.

Iris does not force you to use any specific ORM or template engine. With support for the most used template engines, you can quickly craft the perfect application.

Quick start

# assume the following codes in example.go file
$ cat example.go

package main

import "github.com/kataras/iris"

func main() {
    app := iris.Default()
    app.Get("/ping", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        ctx.JSON(iris.Map{
            "message": "pong",
        })
    })
    // listen and serve on http://0.0.0.0:8080.
    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

# run example.go and visit http://0.0.0.0:8080/ping on browser
$ go run example.go

API Examples

Using Get, Post, Put, Patch, Delete and Options

func main() {
    // Creates an application with default middleware:
    // logger and recovery (crash-free) middleware.
    app := iris.Default()

    app.Get("/someGet", getting)
    app.Post("/somePost", posting)
    app.Put("/somePut", putting)
    app.Delete("/someDelete", deleting)
    app.Patch("/somePatch", patching)
    app.Head("/someHead", head)
    app.Options("/someOptions", options)

    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

Parameters in path

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

    // This handler will match /user/john but will not match neither /user/ or /user.
    app.Get("/user/{name}", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        name := ctx.Params().Get("name")
        ctx.Writef("Hello %s", name)
    })

    // However, this one will match /user/john/ and also /user/john/send.
    app.Post("/user/{name:string}/{action:path}", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        name := ctx.Params().Get("name")
        action := ctx.Params().Get("action")
        message := name + " is " + action
        ctx.WriteString(message)
    })

    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

If parameter type is missing then defaults to string, therefore {name:string} and {name} do the same exactly thing.

Learn more about path parameter's types by navigating here.

Querystring parameters

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

    // Query string parameters are parsed using the existing underlying request object.
    // The request responds to a url matching:  /welcome?firstname=Jane&lastname=Doe.
    app.Get("/welcome", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        firstname := ctx.URLParamDefault("firstname", "Guest")
        // shortcut for ctx.Request().URL.Query().Get("lastname").
        lastname := ctx.URLParam("lastname") 

        ctx.Writef("Hello %s %s", firstname, lastname)
    })

    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

Multipart/Urlencoded Form

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

    app.Post("/form_post", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        message := ctx.FormValue("message")
        nick := ctx.FormValueDefault("nick", "anonymous")

        ctx.JSON(iris.Map{
            "status":  "posted",
            "message": message,
            "nick":    nick,
        })
    })

    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

Another example: query + post form

POST /post?id=1234&page=1 HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

name=manu&message=this_is_great

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

    app.Post("/post", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        id := ctx.URLParam("id")
        page := ctx.URLParamDefault("page", "0")
        name := ctx.FormValue("name")
        message := ctx.FormValue("message")
        // or `ctx.PostValue` for POST, PUT & PATCH-only HTTP Methods.

        app.Logger().Infof("id: %s; page: %s; name: %s; message: %s", id, page, name, message)
    })

    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

id: 1234; page: 1; name: manu; message: this_is_great

Upload files

• single file upload
• multi file upload

const maxSize = 5 << 20 // 5MB

func main() {
    app := iris.Default()
    app.Post("/upload", iris.LimitRequestBodySize(maxSize), func(ctx iris.Context) {
        //
        // UploadFormFiles
        // uploads any number of incoming files ("multiple" property on the form input).
        //

        // The second, optional, argument
        // can be used to change a file's name based on the request,
        // at this example we will showcase how to use it
        // by prefixing the uploaded file with the current user's ip.
        ctx.UploadFormFiles("./uploads", beforeSave)
    })

    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

func beforeSave(ctx iris.Context, file *multipart.FileHeader) {
    ip := ctx.RemoteAddr()
    // make sure you format the ip in a way
    // that can be used for a file name (simple case):
    ip = strings.Replace(ip, ".", "_", -1)
    ip = strings.Replace(ip, ":", "_", -1)

    // you can use the time.Now, to prefix or suffix the files
    // based on the current time as well, as an exercise.
    // i.e unixTime :=	time.Now().Unix()
    // prefix the Filename with the $IP-
    // no need for more actions, internal uploader will use this
    // name to save the file into the "./uploads" folder.
    file.Filename = ip + "-" + file.Filename
}

How to curl:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/upload \
  -F "files[]=@./myfile.zip" \
  -F "files[]=@./mysecondfile.zip" \
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data"

Grouping routes

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

	// Simple group: v1.
	v1 := app.Party("/v1")
	{
		v1.Post("/login", loginEndpoint)
		v1.Post("/submit", submitEndpoint)
		v1.Post("/read", readEndpoint)
	}

	// Simple group: v2.
	v2 := app.Party("/v2")
	{
		v2.Post("/login", loginEndpoint)
		v2.Post("/submit", submitEndpoint)
		v2.Post("/read", readEndpoint)
	}

	app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

Blank Iris without middleware by default

Use

app := iris.New()

instead of

// Default with the Logger and Recovery middleware already attached.
app := iris.Default()

Using middleware

import (
    "github.com/kataras/iris"

    "github.com/kataras/iris/middleware/recover"
    "github.com/kataras/iris/middleware/logger"
)

func main() {
    // Creates an application without any middleware by default.
    app := iris.New()

    // Recover middleware recovers from any panics and writes a 500 if there was one.
    app.Use(recover.New())

    requestLogger := logger.New(logger.Config{
        // Status displays status code
        Status: true,
        // IP displays request's remote address
        IP: true,
        // Method displays the http method
        Method: true,
        // Path displays the request path
        Path: true,
        // Query appends the url query to the Path.
        Query: true,

        // if !empty then its contents derives from `ctx.Values().Get("logger_message")
        // will be added to the logs.
        MessageContextKeys: []string{"logger_message"},

        // if !empty then its contents derives from `ctx.GetHeader("User-Agent")
        MessageHeaderKeys: []string{"User-Agent"},
    })
    app.Use(requestLogger)

    // Per route middleware, you can add as many as you desire.
    app.Get("/benchmark", MyBenchLogger(), benchEndpoint)

    // Authorization party /user.
    // authorized := app.Party("/user", AuthRequired())
    // exactly the same as:
    authorized := app.Party("/user")
    // per party middleware! in this case we use the custom created
    // AuthRequired() middleware just in the "authorized" group/party.
    authorized.Use(AuthRequired())
    {
        authorized.Post("/login", loginEndpoint)
        authorized.Post("/submit", submitEndpoint)
        authorized.Post("/read", readEndpoint)

        // nested group: /user/testing
        testing := authorized.Party("/testing")
        testing.Get("/analytics", analyticsEndpoint)
    }

    // Listen and serve on http://0.0.0.0:8080
    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

How to write log file

package main

import (
	"os"
	"time"

	"github.com/kataras/iris"
)

// Get a filename based on the date, just for the sugar.
func todayFilename() string {
    today := time.Now().Format("Jan 02 2006")
    return today + ".txt"
}

func newLogFile() *os.File {
    filename := todayFilename()
    // Open the file, this will append to the today's file if server restarted.
    f, err := os.OpenFile(filename, os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_APPEND, 0666)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    return f
}

func main() {
    f := newLogFile()
    defer f.Close()

    app := iris.New()
    // Attach the file as logger, remember, iris' app logger is just an io.Writer.
    // Use the following code if you need to write the logs to file and console at the same time.
    // app.Logger().SetOutput(io.MultiWriter(f, os.Stdout))
    app.Logger().SetOutput(f)

    app.Get("/ping", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        // for the sake of simplicity, in order see the logs at the ./_today_.txt
        ctx.Application().Logger().Infof("Request path: %s", ctx.Path())
        ctx.WriteString("pong")
    })

    // Navigate to http://localhost:8080/ping
    // and open the ./logs{TODAY}.txt file.
    if err := app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"), iris.WithoutBanner, iris.WithoutServerError(iris.ErrServerClosed)); err != nil {
        app.Logger().Warn("Shutdown with error: " + err.Error())
    }
}

Model binding and validation

Iris uses go-playground/validator.v9 for validation. Check the full docs on tags usage here.

Example detail code.

Note that you need to set the corresponding binding tag on all fields you want to bind. For example, when binding from JSON, set json:"fieldname".

package main

import (
    "fmt"

    "github.com/kataras/iris"
    "gopkg.in/go-playground/validator.v9"
)

// User contains user information.
type User struct {
    FirstName      string     `json:"fname"`
    LastName       string     `json:"lname"`
    Age            uint8      `json:"age" validate:"gte=0,lte=130"`
    Email          string     `json:"email" validate:"required,email"`
    FavouriteColor string     `json:"favColor" validate:"hexcolor|rgb|rgba"`
    Addresses      []*Address `json:"addresses" validate:"required,dive,required"` // a person can have a home and cottage...
}

// Address houses a users address information.
type Address struct {
    Street string `json:"street" validate:"required"`
    City   string `json:"city" validate:"required"`
    Planet string `json:"planet" validate:"required"`
    Phone  string `json:"phone" validate:"required"`
}

// Use a single instance of Validate, it caches struct info.
var validate *validator.Validate

func main() {
    validate = validator.New()

    // Register validation for 'User'
    // NOTE: only have to register a non-pointer type for 'User', validator
    // interanlly dereferences during it's type checks.
    validate.RegisterStructValidation(UserStructLevelValidation, User{})

    app := iris.New()
    app.Post("/user", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        var user User
        if err := ctx.ReadJSON(&user); err != nil {
            // Handle error.
        }

        // Returns InvalidValidationError for bad validation input, nil or ValidationErrors ( []FieldError )
        err := validate.Struct(user)
        if err != nil {

            // This check is only needed when your code could produce
            // an invalid value for validation such as interface with nil
            // value most including myself do not usually have code like this.
            if _, ok := err.(*validator.InvalidValidationError); ok {
                ctx.StatusCode(iris.StatusInternalServerError)
                ctx.WriteString(err.Error())
                return
            }

            ctx.StatusCode(iris.StatusBadRequest)
            for _, err := range err.(validator.ValidationErrors) {
                fmt.Println()
                fmt.Println(err.Namespace())
                fmt.Println(err.Field())
                fmt.Println(err.StructNamespace()) // Can differ when a custom TagNameFunc is registered or.
                fmt.Println(err.StructField())     // By passing alt name to ReportError like below.
                fmt.Println(err.Tag())
                fmt.Println(err.ActualTag())
                fmt.Println(err.Kind())
                fmt.Println(err.Type())
                fmt.Println(err.Value())
                fmt.Println(err.Param())
                fmt.Println()
            }

            return
        }

        // save user to database.
    })

    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

func UserStructLevelValidation(sl validator.StructLevel) {
    user := sl.Current().Interface().(User)

    if len(user.FirstName) == 0 && len(user.LastName) == 0 {
        sl.ReportError(user.FirstName, "FirstName", "fname", "fnameorlname", "")
        sl.ReportError(user.LastName, "LastName", "lname", "fnameorlname", "")
    }
}

{
    "fname": "",
    "lname": "",
    "age": 45,
    "email": "mail@example.com",
    "favColor": "#000",
    "addresses": [{
        "street": "Eavesdown Docks",
        "planet": "Persphone",
        "phone": "none",
        "city": "Unknown"
    }]
}

Cookies

Are you looking about http sessions instead?

Let's write a simple application which will make use of the HTTP Cookies.

$ cat _examples/cookies/basic/main.go

package main

import "github.com/kataras/iris"

func newApp() *iris.Application {
    app := iris.New()

    // Set A Cookie.
    app.Get("/cookies/{name}/{value}", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        name := ctx.Params().Get("name")
        value := ctx.Params().Get("value")

        ctx.SetCookieKV(name, value)

        ctx.Writef("cookie added: %s = %s", name, value)
    })

    // Retrieve A Cookie.
    app.Get("/cookies/{name}", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        name := ctx.Params().Get("name")

        value := ctx.GetCookie(name)

        ctx.WriteString(value)
    })

    // Delete A Cookie.
    app.Delete("/cookies/{name}", func(ctx iris.Context) {
        name := ctx.Params().Get("name")

        ctx.RemoveCookie(name)

        ctx.Writef("cookie %s removed", name)
    })

    return app
}

func main() {
    app := newApp()

    // GET:    http://localhost:8080/cookies/my_name/my_value
    // GET:    http://localhost:8080/cookies/my_name
    // DELETE: http://localhost:8080/cookies/my_name
    app.Run(iris.Addr(":8080"))
}

• Alternatively, use a regular http.Cookie: ctx.SetCookie(&http.Cookie{...})
• If you want to set custom the path: ctx.SetCookieKV(name, value, iris.CookiePath("/custom/path/cookie/will/be/stored")).
• If you want to be available only to the current request path: ctx.SetCookieKV(name, value, iris.CookieCleanPath /* or iris.CookiePath("") */)
  • iris.CookieExpires(time.Duration)
  • iris.CookieHTTPOnly(false)
• ctx.Request().Cookie(name) is also available, it's the net/http approach
• Learn more about path parameter's types by clicking here.

Testing

Iris offers an incredible support for the httpexpect, a Testing Framework for web applications. However, you are able to use the standard Go's net/http/httptest package as well but in this example we will use the kataras/iris/httptest.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "testing"

    "github.com/kataras/iris/httptest"
)

// go test -v -run=TestCookiesBasic$
func TestCookiesBasic(t *testing.T) {
    app := newApp()
    e := httptest.New(t, app, httptest.URL("http://example.com"))

    cookieName, cookieValue := "my_cookie_name", "my_cookie_value"

    // Test Set A Cookie.
    t1 := e.GET(fmt.Sprintf("/cookies/%s/%s", cookieName, cookieValue)).Expect().Status(httptest.StatusOK)
    t1.Cookie(cookieName).Value().Equal(cookieValue) // validate cookie's existence, it should be there now.
    t1.Body().Contains(cookieValue)

    path := fmt.Sprintf("/cookies/%s", cookieName)

    // Test Retrieve A Cookie.
    t2 := e.GET(path).Expect().Status(httptest.StatusOK)
    t2.Body().Equal(cookieValue)

    // Test Remove A Cookie.
    t3 := e.DELETE(path).Expect().Status(httptest.StatusOK)
    t3.Body().Contains(cookieName)

    t4 := e.GET(path).Expect().Status(httptest.StatusOK)
    t4.Cookies().Empty()
    t4.Body().Empty()
}

Learn

First of all, the most correct way to begin with a web framework is to learn the basics of the programming language and the standard http capabilities, if your web application is a very simple personal project without performance and maintainability requirements you may want to proceed just with the standard packages. After that follow the guidelines:

• Navigate through 100+1 examples and some iris starter kits we crafted for you
• Read the godocs for any details
• Prepare a cup of coffee or tea, whatever pleases you the most, and read some articles we found for you

Iris starter kits

1. A basic web app built in Iris for Go
2. A mini social-network created with the awesome Iris💖💖
3. Iris isomorphic react/hot reloadable/redux/css-modules starter kit
4. Demo project with react using typescript and Iris
5. Self-hosted Localization Management Platform built with Iris and Angular
6. Iris + Docker and Kubernetes
7. Quickstart for Iris with Nanobox
8. A Hasura starter project with a ready to deploy Golang hello-world web app with IRIS

Did you build something similar? Let us know!

Middleware

Iris has a great collection of handlers[1][2] that you can use side by side with your web apps. However you are not limited to them - you are free to use any third-party middleware that is compatible with the net/http package, _examples/convert-handlers will show you the way.

Iris, unlike others, is 100% compatible with the standards and that's why the majority of the big companies that adapt Go to their workflow, like a very famous US Television Network, trust Iris; it's up-to-date and it will be always aligned with the std net/http package which is modernized by the Go Authors on each new release of the Go Programming Language.

Articles

• A Todo MVC Application using Iris and Vue.js
• A Hasura starter project with a ready to deploy Golang hello-world web app with IRIS
• Top 6 web frameworks for Go as of 2017
• Iris Go Framework + MongoDB
• How to build a file upload form using DropzoneJS and Go
• How to display existing files on server using DropzoneJS and Go
• Iris, a modular web framework
• Go vs .NET Core in terms of HTTP performance
• Iris Go vs .NET Core Kestrel in terms of HTTP performance
• How to Turn an Android Device into a Web Server
• Deploying a Iris Golang app in hasura
• A URL Shortener Service using Go, Iris and Bolt

Video Courses

• Daily Coding - Web Framework Golang: Iris Framework by WarnabiruTV, source: youtube, cost: FREE
• Tutorial Golang MVC dengan Iris Framework & Mongo DB (19 parts so far) by Musobar Media, source: youtube, cost: FREE
• Go/Golang 27 - Iris framework : Routage de base by stephgdesign, source: youtube, cost: FREE
• Go/Golang 28 - Iris framework : Templating by stephgdesignn, source: youtube, cost: FREE
• Go/Golang 29 - Iris framework : Paramètres by stephgdesign, source: youtube, cost: FREE
• Go/Golang 30 - Iris framework : Les middelwares by stephgdesign, source: youtube, cost: FREE
• Go/Golang 31 - Iris framework : Les sessions by stephgdesign, source: youtube, cost: FREE

Support

• HISTORY file is your best friend, it contains information about the latest features and changes
• Did you happen to find a bug? Post it at github issues
• Do you have any questions or need to speak with someone experienced to solve a problem at real-time? Join us to the community chat
• Complete our form-based user experience report by clicking here
• Do you like the framework? Tweet something about it! The People have spoken:

Get hired

There are many companies and start-ups looking for Go web developers with Iris experience as requirement, we are searching for you every day and we post those information via our facebook page, like the page to get notified, we have already posted some of them.

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! 🙏 Become a backer

For more information about contributing to the Iris project please check the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

List of all Contributors

License

Iris is licensed under the 3-Clause BSD License. Iris is 100% free and open-source software.

For any questions regarding the license please send e-mail.