Working with web handlers, requests, and ResponseWriters

Go defines HandlerFuncs and a Handler interface with the following signatures:

// HandlerFunc implements the Handler interface
type HandlerFunc func(http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request)

type Handler interface {
    ServeHTTP(http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request)
}

By default, the net/http package makes extensive use of these types. For example, a route can be attached to a Handler or HandlerFunc interface. This recipe will explore creating a Handler interface, listening on a local port, and performing some operations on an http.ResponseWriter interface after processing http.Request. This should be considered the basis for Go web applications and RESTFul APIs.

Getting ready

Configure your environment according to these steps:

1. Download and install Go on your operating system from https://golang.org/doc/install, and configure your GOPATH environment variable.
2. Open a terminal/console application.
3. Navigate to your GOPATH/src and create a project...