Learning outline for web development with Go (Golang)

1. Go Language Fundamentals

• Basics
  • Syntax, variables, data types
  • Control structures (if/else, loops, switch)
  • Functions, multiple return values
  • Packages and imports
• Intermediate Concepts
  • Pointers, structs, methods
  • Interfaces and type assertions
  • Error handling
  • Concurrency (goroutines, channels, sync package)
• Advanced Features
  • Reflection
  • Context package
  • Testing (unit tests, benchmarks)
  • Modules and dependency management

2. Setting Up a Go Environment

• Install Go and configure GOPATH
• Introduction to Go modules (go.mod, go.sum)
• Basic toolchain (go build, go run, go test)
• IDE setup (VS Code, GoLand, etc.)

3. Web Development Basics

• HTTP Fundamentals
  • Request/response cycle
  • HTTP methods (GET, POST, etc.)
  • Status codes and headers
• Standard Library (net/http)
  • Creating a basic HTTP server
  • Handling routes manually
  • Reading request data (query params, form data, JSON)
  • Writing responses (plaintext, JSON, HTML)
• Templating
  • html/template package for server-side rendering
  • Static file serving

4. Web Frameworks & Routing

• Choosing a Framework
  • Comparison: Gin, Echo, Chi, Fiber, or standard library
• Gin Framework (Example)
  • Routing and route groups
  • Middleware (logging, auth, CORS)
  • Binding and validation
  • Error handling
• Building RESTful APIs
  • CRUD operations with JSON
  • Versioning best practices

5. Database Integration

• SQL Databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL)
  • Using database/sql package
  • ORM tools (GORM, sqlx)
  • Connection pooling and migrations
• NoSQL Databases (MongoDB)
  • Official MongoDB Go driver
  • BSON data handling
• Caching
  • Redis integration (go-redis)

6. Authentication & Authorization

• Session-based auth (cookies)
• JWT (JSON Web Tokens) implementation
• OAuth2 (Google/GitHub login)
• Password hashing (bcrypt)
• Security best practices (CSRF, CORS, rate limiting)

7. Advanced Topics

• WebSockets (gorilla/websocket)
• File Uploads/Downloads
• Third-Party API Integration (REST clients)
• Background Jobs (asynchronous workers)
• Caching Strategies (Redis, in-memory cache)
• Microservices Basics (gRPC, REST)

8. Deployment & DevOps

• Dockerizing Go applications
• Cloud deployment (AWS, GCP, Heroku)
• Monitoring and logging (Prometheus, Grafana)
• CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
• Environment configuration (.env files, 12-factor app)

9. Best Practices

• Project structure (modular design)
• Error handling and logging
• Testing (integration tests, mocking)
• Performance optimization (pprof, benchmarks)
• Documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI)

10. Capstone Project

• Build a full-stack application:
  • User authentication
  • REST API + frontend (HTML/JavaScript or Go templating)
  • Database integration
  • Deployment to a cloud platform

Next Steps

• Contribute to open-source Go projects
• Explore cloud-native Go (Kubernetes operators, serverless)
• Learn gRPC/protobuf for microservices
• Study advanced concurrency patterns
• Follow Go releases and community trends