Serving SPA with Golang and Chi router enters a loop

Question

I´m trying to serve a SPA with Golang and solving the 404 error became a challenge.

In the init() func I buffered into memory the index.html file.
I created a indexHandler that returns the index file buffered.
I call the indexHandler in the router.NotFound() func so the route is returned to the SPA.
I serve the rest of the static files with FileServer.

The problem is that it seems to be in a loop, when I try to access the app in the browser, it reloads itself indefinitely.

package main

import (
    "log"
    "net/http"
    "os"
    "path/filepath"
    "time"

    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5"
    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5/middleware"

    "github.com/joho/godotenv"
)

var indexBuffer []byte

func main() {   
    r := chi.NewRouter()
    
    r.Use(middleware.RequestID)
    r.Use(middleware.RealIP)
    r.Use(middleware.Logger)
    r.Use(middleware.Recoverer)

    fs := http.FileServer(http.Dir(os.Getenv("FRONTEND_PATH")))
    r.Handle("/app/static/*", http.StripPrefix("/app/static/", fs))

    apiRouter := chi.NewRouter()
    apiRouter.Get("/cargas", handlerCargas)

    r.Mount("/app/api", apiRouter)

    r.NotFound(indexHandler)

    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8000", r))
}

func init() {
    err := godotenv.Load()
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal("Erro ao ler .env verifique!")
    }

    indexBuffer, err = os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(os.Getenv("FRONTEND_PATH"), "index.html"))
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal("Erro ao tentar bufferizar a index na init().")
    }
}

func indexHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/html")
    w.Write(indexBuffer)
}

I´m expecting index.html to be served by the indexHandler and the rest of the files be served by the FileServer and errors of page not found be handled by the SPA.

Please check the _Network_ tab in the DevTools to find output which requests result in the loop. — Zeke Lu, Jun 20 '23 at 13:42
The loop problem was happening because I did not treated the error page in the SPA. Now I have another problem. The 404 that is emitted by the FileServer is not handled by r.NotFound. I will have to write a custom FileServer. — Vinicius Franco, Jun 20 '23 at 18:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 22 '23 at 18:18

I found a solution here

I adapted my code and used the FileServer as below:

// FileServer para SPA
func FileServerSPA(r chi.Router, public string, static string) {

    if strings.ContainsAny(public, "{}*") {
        panic("FileServer does not permit URL parameters.")
    }

    root, _ := filepath.Abs(static)
    if _, err := os.Stat(root); os.IsNotExist(err) {
        panic("Static Documents Directory Not Found")
    }

    fs := http.StripPrefix(public, http.FileServer(http.Dir(root)))

    if public != "/" && public[len(public)-1] != '/' {
        r.Get(public, http.RedirectHandler(public+"/", 301).ServeHTTP)
        public += "/"
    }

    r.Get(public+"*", http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        file := strings.Replace(r.RequestURI, public, "/", 1)
        if _, err := os.Stat(root + file); os.IsNotExist(err) {
            http.ServeFile(w, r, path.Join(root, "index.html"))
            return
        }
        fs.ServeHTTP(w, r)
    }))
}

and, in main():

// ...
// after all the endpoints of the api

frontendPath := os.Getenv("FRONTEND_PATH")
FileServerSPA(r, "/app", frontendPath)

log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8000", r))

Hope it helps

Serving SPA with Golang and Chi router enters a loop

1 Answers1