api

README

micro api

The micro api is an API gateway for microservices. Use the API gateway pattern to provide a single entry point for your services. The micro api serves HTTP and dynamically routes to the appropriate backend service.

How it works

The micro api builds on go-micro, leveraging it for service discovery, load balancing, encoding and RPC based communication. Requests to the API are served over HTTP and internally routed via RPC.

Because the micro api uses go-micro internally, this also makes it pluggable, so feel free to switch out consul service discovery for the kubernetes api or RPC for gRPC.

API

The micro api provides the following HTTP api

- /[service]/[method]	# HTTP paths are dynamically mapped to services
- /rpc			# Explicitly call a backend service by name and method

See below for examples

Handlers

Handlers are HTTP handlers which manage request routing.

The default handler uses endpoint metadata from the registry to determine service routes. If a route match is not found it will fallback to the API handler. You can configure routes on registration using the go-api.

The API has three types of configurable request handlers.

1. API Handler: /[service]/[method]
   • Request/Response: api.Request/api.Response
   • The path is used to resolve service and method.
   • Requests are handled via API services which take the request api.Request and response api.Response types.
   • Definitions for the Request/Response can be found at go-api/proto
   • The content type of the request/response body can be anything.
   • The default fallback handler where routes are not available.
   • Set via --handler=api
2. RPC Handler: /[service]/[method]
   • Request/Response: json/protobuf
   • An alternative to the default handler which uses the go-micro client to forward the request body as an RPC request.
   • Allows API handlers to be defined with concrete Go types.
   • Useful where you do not need full control of headers or request/response.
   • Can be used to run a single layer of backend services rather than additional API services.
   • Supported content-type application/json and application/protobuf.
   • Set via --handler=rpc
3. Reverse Proxy: /[service]
   • Request/Response: http
   • The request will be reverse proxied to the service resolved by the first element in the path
   • This allows REST to be implemented behind the API
   • Set via --handler=proxy.

Alternatively use the /rpc endpoint to speak to any service directly

• Expects params: service, method, request, optionally accepts address to target a specific host

curl -d 'service=go.micro.srv.greeter' \
	-d 'method=Say.Hello' \
	-d 'request={"name": "Bob"}' \
	http://localhost:8080/rpc

Find working examples in github.com/micro/examples/api

API Handler Request/Response Proto

The API Handler which is also the default handler expects services to use specific request and response protos, available at go-api/proto. This allows the micro api to deconstruct a HTTP request into RPC and back to HTTP.

Getting started

Install

go get github.com/micro/micro

Run

micro api

ACME via Let's Encrypt

Serve securely by default using ACME via letsencrypt

micro --enable_acme api

Optionally specify a host whitelist

micro --enable_acme --acme_hosts=example.com,api.example.com api

Serve Secure TLS

The API supports serving securely with TLS certificates

micro --enable_tls --tls_cert_file=/path/to/cert --tls_key_file=/path/to/key api

Set Namespace

The API defaults to serving the namespace go.micro.api. The combination of namespace and request path are used to resolve an API service and method to send the query to.

micro api --namespace=com.example.api

Examples

Here we have an example of a 3 tier architecture

• micro api (localhost:8080) - serving as the http entry point
• api service (go.micro.api.greeter) - serving a public facing api
• backend service (go.micro.srv.greeter) - internally scoped service

The full working example is here

Run Example

Prereq: Ensure you are running service discovery e.g consul agent -dev

Get examples

git clone https://github.com/micro/examples

Start the service go.micro.srv.greeter

go run examples/greeter/srv/main.go

Start the API service go.micro.api.greeter

go run examples/greeter/api/api.go

Start the micro api

micro api

Query

Make a HTTP call via the micro api

curl "http://localhost:8080/greeter/say/hello?name=Asim+Aslam"

The HTTP path /greeter/say/hello maps to service go.micro.api.greeter method Say.Hello

Bypass the api service and call the backend directly via /rpc

curl -d 'service=go.micro.srv.greeter' \
	-d 'method=Say.Hello' \
	-d 'request={"name": "Asim Aslam"}' \
	http://localhost:8080/rpc

Make the same call entirely as JSON

$ curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
	-d '{"service": "go.micro.srv.greeter", "method": "Say.Hello", "request": {"name": "Asim Aslam"}}' \
	http://localhost:8080/rpc

Request Mapping

Micro dynamically routes to services using a fixed namespace and the HTTP path.

The default namespace for these services is go.micro.api but the namespace can be set via the --namespace flag.

API per Service

We promote a pattern of creating an API service per backend service for public facing traffic. This logically separates the concerns of serving an API frontend and backend services.

RPC Mapping

URLs are mapped as follows:

Path	Service	Method
/foo/bar	go.micro.api.foo	Foo.Bar
/foo/bar/baz	go.micro.api.foo	Bar.Baz
/foo/bar/baz/cat	go.micro.api.foo.bar	Baz.Cat

Versioned API URLs can easily be mapped to service names:

Path	Service	Method
/foo/bar	go.micro.api.foo	Foo.Bar
/v1/foo/bar	go.micro.api.v1.foo	Foo.Bar
/v1/foo/bar/baz	go.micro.api.v1.foo	Bar.Baz
/v2/foo/bar	go.micro.api.v2.foo	Foo.Bar
/v2/foo/bar/baz	go.micro.api.v2.foo	Bar.Baz

REST Mapping

You can serve a RESTful API by using the API as a reverse proxy and implementing RESTful paths with libraries such as go-restful. An example of a REST API service can be found at greeter/api/rest.

Running the micro api with --handler=proxy will reverse proxy requests to services within the API namespace.

Path	Service	Service Path
/foo/bar	go.micro.api.foo	/foo/bar
/greeter	go.micro.api.greeter	/greeter
/greeter/:name	go.micro.api.greeter	/greeter/:name

Using this handler means speaking HTTP directly with the backend service, ignoring any go-micro transport plugins.

Stats Dashboard

Enable a stats dashboard via the --enable_stats flag. It will be exposed on /stats.

micro --enable_stats api

Documentation

Overview

Package api is an API Gateway

Index

• Variables
• func Commands() []cli.Command
• func Plugins() []plugin.Plugin
• func Register(pl plugin.Plugin) error

Variables

var (
	Name         = "go.micro.api"
	Address      = ":8080"
	Handler      = string(api.Default)
	RPCPath      = "/rpc"
	APIPath      = "/"
	ProxyPath    = "/{service:[a-zA-Z0-9]+}"
	Namespace    = "go.micro.api"
	HeaderPrefix = "X-Micro-"
	CORS         = map[string]bool{"*": true}
)

Functions

func Commands

func Commands() []cli.Command

func Plugins

func Plugins() []plugin.Plugin

Plugins lists the api plugins

func Register

func Register(pl plugin.Plugin) error

Register registers an api plugin