Alloy

Alloy is a starter template for creating web applications using Go programming language. It does not aim to be a web framework but is instead a collection of useful libraries and packages that acts a sensible starting point.

Recently, I decided to build my latest side project using Go. I started off with just the standard library and then gradually added a few recommended packages for performing common tasks like database calls (sqlx), migrations (pressly/goose) and sending emails (gomail). This boilerplate has been extracted from that side project.

Alloy uses Webpack for managing front-end assets (Javascript and CSS), so you need to have Node.js and NPM installed in order to use that. This boilerplate also includes a separate 'admin panel' which acts as a CMS for adding pages, managing users etc.

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** NOTE: ** Currently this uses Postgres as the database, so you would need postgres to be running before you start the application. In future releases, I will be adding support for other databases.

Packages used

go-chi/chi
lib/pq
jmoiron/sqlx
markbates/pop/nulls
gorilla/sessions
gorilla/csrf
gorilla/securecookies
markbates/refresh
microcosm-cc/bluemonday
pkg/errors
pressly/douceur
pressly/goose
satori/go.uuid
spf13/cobra

Available commands

Usage:
  alloy [command]

Available Commands:
  db          Manage the app's database (create migration, migrate up/down/redo).
  dev         Start the development server (along with webpack watch)
  gen-key     Generate a random key to use with securecookies
  help        Help about any command
  new-admin   Manage the admin user(s)
  server      Start the server
  version     Print the version number of alloy

Installation and usage

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/olliecoleman/alloy
cd alloy

Install the dependencies

glide install
npm install

Create the following environment variables.

PORT=1212
ENVIRONMENT=development (change to 'production' in the production environment)
HOST=localhost
DATABASE_URL=XXX (replace)
TEST_DATABASE_URL=XXX (replace)
MIGRATIONS_DIR=app/migrations
CSRF_KEY=XXX (replace with 32 character string (use the gen-key command))
HASH_KEY=XXX (replace with 64 character string (use the gen-key command))
BLOCK_KEY=XXX (replace with 32 character string (use the gen-key command))
SMTP_HOST=127.0.0.1
SMTP_PORT=1025
SMTP_USERNAME=__REPLACE__
SMTP_PASSWORD=__REPLACE__
MAILER_FROM=XXX (e.g: support@alloy.dev)
MAILER_HOST=http://localhost:1212
ASSET_URL=http://localhost:1212 (if you are using a CDN in production, this can be set to that URL)

Start the development server

go install
alloy dev

Now you can open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:1212 to see it in action. Any changes you make to the .go files will be automatically picked up and the app will be re-compiled.

Project structure

    ├── README.md
    ├── app
    │   ├── handlers
    │   ├── mailer
    │   ├── migrations
    │   ├── models
    │   ├── router
    │   │   ├── middleware
    │   │   └── router.go
    │   ├── services
    │   │   ├── db.go
    │   │   └── session.go
    │   ├── templates
    │   │   ├── admin
    │   │   ├── layouts
    │   │   ├── mailer
    │   │   ├── pages
    │   └── views
    ├── assets
    │   ├── fonts
    │   ├── images
    │   ├── js
    │   └── scss
    │       ├── admin
    │       ├── frontend
    │       └── frontend.scss
    ├── cmd
    ├── testutils
    ├── glide.yaml
    ├── main.go
    ├── package.json
    ├── refresh.yml
    └── webpack.config.js

Screenshots

If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch via email or open an issue. I would welcome your suggestions and pull requests.