First time using Go - built an authentication backend. Can anyone review and give me pointers?

[old dawn]

Hello all,
I am an experienced web developer and have been using TypeScript for years. I just started learning Go and built a login system for one of my web apps. I don't know any of the "best practices" or stuff like that with Go, but I tried my best. If someone could take a look at my repo and give me some honest feedback, it would be really appreciated. This was partially inspired by a YouTube guide - but I also implemented some of my own practices and methods.

Thanks!

https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt

[hollow fable]

Some thoughts, in no particular order:

• Avoid func init(): https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt/blob/master/main.go#L13
• Avoid globals: https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt/blob/master/initializers/connectToDb.go#L10
• Avoid panics: https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt/blob/master/initializers/connectToDb.go#L18
• Use go fmt: https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt/blob/master/initializers/loadEnvVariables.go#L13
• Avoid spreading environment variables all over the place: https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt/blob/master/middleware/requireAuth.go#L28
• Tests are good
• Prefer if err := c.Bind(...); err != nil: https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt/blob/master/controllers/authController.go#L24
• These jwts appear to be lacking both an iss and aud claim, making validation impossible on the client: https://github.com/n-ochs/go-auth-jwt/blob/master/controllers/authController.go#L88

There are others, but that's some items that jumped out at me after reviewing the code for 5 minutes or so.

Well done, by the way. It is a challenge to go from zero to something, and doubly so to publish that to a community of strangers for criticism. Keep up the good work!

[old dawn]

thank you! this is really helpful. i have a lot of stuff to dig into! appreciate the review and sources 😃

[hollow fable]

Happy to answer any questions I can.

[old dawn]

is there a standard library or package that most people use for testing?

[hollow fable]

Go comes with one in the standard library called, conveniently enough, testing: https://pkg.go.dev/testing

This may be of some interest as a resource for learning how to test in Go: https://quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests/

In particular there is a section of testing HTTP servers: https://quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests/build-an-application/http-server

Gin also has supplementary documentation on testing: https://gin-gonic.com/docs/testing/

github.com/stretchr/testify popular companion module as it includes a bunch of handy test matchers that can significantly DRY up your test code. It's a matter of taste whether or not you use it or something else or stick just with the standard library.

https://github.com/stretchr/testify

[old dawn]

awesome, thanks again!

[hollow fable]

One additional resource I will gently draw your attention to, Effective Go: https://go.dev/doc/effective_go

A handy cheat sheet with common idioms that will help you write code familiar to other Gophers