Web Service Tutorial in Rust

Overview

This project serves as a comprehensive tutorial for building a web service using the Rust programming language. It covers various aspects, from setting up a PostgreSQL database to handling JSON responses.

Technologies Used

• Rust: The core programming language used for this project.
• Tokio: An asynchronous runtime for Rust.
• SQLx: A Rust library for connecting to PostgreSQL databases.
• Dotenv: A Rust crate for handling .env files.
• Serde: A Rust crate for serializing and deserializing data structures.
• Actix-Web: A Rust framework for building web services.
• Chrono: A time manipulation library for Rust.

Documentation

To generate documentation for this project:

cargo doc --open

Alternatively, you can find documentation for each crate on docs.rs.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Ensure you have Docker Compose installed. If not, you can download it from Docker Desktop.

Setup

1. Environment Variables: Copy the sample environment file and configure the variables.

   cp env.example .env

2. Docker Compose: Start the Docker containers.

   docker compose up -d

3. Upload Postman Collection: Open up Postman locally via the desktop client. Then upload the file entitled Web Service Tutorial.postman_collection.json. You should now have access to the Postman collection.

4. Get a Bearer Token:

   1. Go to the create_user route under the auth folder.
   2. Create a user by hitting the Send button. If there's a problem, change both the username and password.
   3. After you have successfully created a new user, check the headers. Under the authorization header, you should see the bearer token. Copy everything after where it says Bearer.
   4. Now click on the Web Service Tutorial Postman collection.
   5. Under the Authorization page, you should see a Type dropdown.
   6. Select Bearer Token. After you select Bearer Token, underneath should apear another dropdown that says Token. Paste the copied bearer token here from before. You should now be authorized for four hours, or for however long JWT_HOURS_ACTIVE is set to in your .env file.
   7. If you have any issues hitting the routes, try changing every localhost:8080 to http://127.0.0.1:8080

5. Test Routes: Open your browser or use a tool like Postman to hit the following route:

   http://127.0.0.1:8080/blog
   

Database GUI (PgAdmin4)

• Access the PgAdmin4 interface at http://localhost:16543.
• Username: [email protected]
• Password: test

For detailed instructions on adding a PostgreSQL server in PgAdmin4, refer to the PG Admin guide.

SQL Schema

The init.sql file contains the SQL statements that define the database schema. Feel free to explore it to understand the database structure.

Authentication

The SKIP_AUTH environment variable controls JWT authentication. Set it to true to disable JWT during development.

Additional Resources

• Crates.io Package
• PG Admin Guide
• Medium Post: Creating a Web Service in Rust with Actix-Web, SQLx, and PostgreSQL