Defining an interface method with interface return type

Question

TLDR Here is a playground that demonstrates the issue if you try to run it: https://play.golang.org/p/myQtUVg1iq

I am making a REST API and have many types of resources that can be retrieved via a GET request

GET http://localhost/api/users
GET http://localhost/api/groups

I have a models package which abstracts how the different resources are implemented:

func(m *UserManager) Get() []Users {
    // Internal logic, assume returns correct results
}

func(m *GroupManager) Get() []Groups {
    // Internal logic, assume returns correct results
}

A routes file setups all the routes and handlers:

users := models.UserManager{}
groups := models.GroupManager{}

func GetUsersHandler (w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    users := users.Get()
    // Implementation details, writing to w as JSON
}

func GetGroupsHandler (w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    groups := groups.Get()
    // Implementation details, writing to w as JSON
}

func registerRoutes(r *mux.Router) {
    r.handleFunc("/api/users", GetUsersHandler).Method("GET")
    r.handleFunc("/api/groups", GetGroupsHandler).Method("GET")
}

I am trying to make this more generic by creating an interface and then only needing a single GetHandler. Something like this:

type Getter interface {
    Get() []interface{}
}

func GetHandler(g Getter) {
    return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        results := g.Get()
        // Implementation details, writing to w as JSON
    }
}

func registerRoutes(r *mux.Router) {
    r.handleFunc("/api/users", GetHandler(&users)).Method("GET")
    r.handleFunc("/api/groups", GetHandler(&groups)).Method("GET")
}

This is really close to working, the only problem is the return type from the models is a specific object type, but the interface just uses the interface return type. Is there any way to solve this without making the models return []interface{}?

https://play.golang.org/p/myQtUVg1iq

Answer 1

I ended up avoiding this problem entirely and instead of trying to reduce the amount of code I am using the new go generate feature in Go 1.4 to create the code that is necessary for each resource.

Answer 2

Try not to approach the problem like you would other OOP languages. You can't have covariant containers in Go, so you either have to use an empty interface{}, or you have to structure your program differently.

If your Get methods are different and you want to group types in an interface, use another method (sometimes we even have noop methods just for interfaces), or just pass in users or groups as an interface{}. You'll need to do a type switch or assertion at some point in the call chain anyway, and once you know what type it is you can handle it accordingly.

It's hard to tell without more code, but in this case, the easiest path may just be to have each type be an http.Handler itself, and it can dispatch accordingly.