traffic_ops_golang

Running

Prequisites

To run traffic_ops_golang proxy locally the following prerequisites are needed:

• Golang version greater or equal to the Go version found in the GO_VERSION file at the base of this repository. See: https://golang.org/doc/install
• Postgres 13.2 or greater

Vendoring and Building

vendoring

We treat golang.org/x as a part of the Go compiler so that means that we still vendor application dependencies for stability and reproducible builds. The govend tool is helpful for managing dependencies.

building

To download the remaining golang.org/x dependencies you need to:

$ go mod vendor -v

Configuration

cdn.conf changes

Copy traffic_ops/app/conf/cdn.conf to $HOME/cdn.conf so you can modify it for development purposes.

$HOME/cdn.conf

       "traffic_ops_golang" : {
          "port" : "443",

       "traffic_ops_golang" : {
          "port" : "8443",

Logging

By default /var/log/traffic_ops/error.log is configured for output, to change this modify your $HOME/cdn.conf for the following:

$HOME/cdn.conf

    "traffic_ops_golang" : {
        "..."
        "log_location_error": "stdout",
        "log_location_warning": "stdout",
        "log_location_info": "stdout",
        "log_location_debug": "stdout",
        "log_location_event": "stdout",
        ...
     }

Development

Go is a compiled language so any local changes will require you to CTRL-C the console and re-run the traffic_ops_golang Go binary locally:

go build && ./traffic_ops_golang -cfg $HOME/cdn.conf -dbcfg ../app/conf/development/database.conf

Updating a Minor Version

Traffic Control implements Semantic Versioning. When adding new fields to the API, we must increase the minor version. If you're the first one adding a new field to a particular object in a particular release, you'll need to do this.

The structs with no version in the name are the latest version.

Most structs do not have versioning. If you are adding a field to a struct with no existing versioning. see lib/go-tc/deliveryservices.go for an example.

1. In lib/go-tc, rename the old struct to be the previous minor version.

   • For example, if you are adding a field to Delivery Service and existing minor version is 1.4 (so your new minor version is 1.5), in lib/go-tc/deliveryservices.go rename type DeliveryServiceNullable struct to type DeliveryServiceNullableV14 struct.

2. In lib/go-tc, create a new struct with an unversioned name, and anonymously embed the previous struct (that you just renamed), along with your new field.

   • For example:

type DeliveryServiceNullable struct {
	DeliveryServiceNullableV14
	MyNewField *int `json:"myNewField" db:"my_new_field"`
}

1. In lib/go-tc, change the struct's type alias to the new minor version.
   • For example:

type DeliveryServiceNullableV15 DeliveryServiceNullable

1. Update the Sanitize function on the unversioned struct, e.g. func (ds *DeliveryServiceNullable) Sanitize(), which sets your new field to a default value, if it is null.

  func (ds *DeliveryServiceNullable) Sanitize() {
    if ds.MyNewField == nil { ... }

1. Update the Validate function on the unversioned struct to add validation for your new field.

   • For example, if your new field is a port, Validate should verify it is between 0 and 65535.
   • Almost all fields can be invalid! Don't skip this step. Proper validation is essential to Traffic Control functioning properly and rejecting invalid input.

2. Add new versioned Create and Update handlers for the new version in e.g. deliveryservice/deliveryservices.go. The added Create and Update handlers will decode requests into the latest version of the struct and should pass it to an underlying versioned create or update function:

For example:

func CreateV15(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  ...
	ds := tc.DeliveryServiceNullableV15{}
	if err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&ds); err != nil {
		api.HandleErr(w, r, inf.Tx.Tx, http.StatusBadRequest, errors.New("decoding: "+err.Error()), nil)
		return
	}

	res, status, userErr, sysErr := createV15(w, r, inf, ds)
	if userErr != nil || sysErr != nil {
		api.HandleErr(w, r, inf.Tx.Tx, status, userErr, sysErr)
		return
	}
	api.WriteRespAlertObj(w, r, tc.SuccessLevel, "Deliveryservice creation was successful.", []tc.DeliveryServiceNullableV15{*res})
}

func createV15(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, inf *api.APIInfo, reqDS tc.DeliveryServiceNullableV15) *tc.DeliveryServiceNullableV15 {
  ...
}

NOTE: the underlying create and update functions are chained together so that requests for previous minor versions are upgraded into requests of the next latest version until they are finally handled at the latest minor version.

Example call chains:

  CreateV12 -> createV12 -> createV13 -> createV14 -> createV15
  CreateV13         ->      createV13 -> createV14 -> createV15
  CreateV14                ->            createV14 -> createV15
  CreateV15                      ->                   createV15

In this example you would rename the existing createV14 function to createV15 and update its signature to accept and return a V15 struct. Then you would create a new createV14 function, in which you would simply create a V15 struct, insert the V14 struct into it, and pass it to the createV15 function. By doing that, the V14 request would essentially be upgraded into a V15 request for the underlying createV15 handler to use.

For an updateV14 function, you would follow the same pattern as the create function, but you also have to take into account any existing 1.5 fields that may already exist in the resource. So, you have to read existing 1.5 fields from the DB into your V15 struct before passing it to updateV15. That is how an "update" request can be upgraded from a 1.4 request to a 1.5 request.

1. Modify the createV15 and updateV15 functions (and associated INSERT and UPDATE SQL queries) to create and update the new field in e.g. deliveryservice/deliveryservices.go.

2. Modify the Read function (and associated SELECT SQL query) to read structs of the new version. For example in deliveryservice/deliveryservices.go, you would update the switch statement so that version.Minor >= 5 returns structs of DeliveryServiceNullable (the latest version of the struct), and version.Minor >= 4 returns structs of the embedded DeliveryServiceNullableV14. The SELECT SQL query should always be updated to read all of the latest fields, and the Read handler should always return the proper versioned struct for the requested API version.

NOTE: the Delete handler should not need any modification when adding a new minor version of an API endpoint.

1. Add the routes for your new CreateV15 and UpdateV15 handlers to traffic_ops/traffic_ops_golang/routing/routes.go.

   • The new latest route must go above the previous version. If the new version is below the old, the new version will never be routed to!

   For example, Change:

		{1.4, http.MethodPost, `deliveryservices/?(\.json)?$`, deliveryservice.CreateV14, auth.PrivLevelOperations, Authenticated, nil},

To:

		{1.5, http.MethodPost, `deliveryservices/?(\.json)?$`, deliveryservice.CreateV15, auth.PrivLevelOperations, Authenticated, nil},
		{1.4, http.MethodPost, `deliveryservices/?(\.json)?$`, deliveryservice.CreateV14, auth.PrivLevelOperations, Authenticated, nil},

NOTE: the Read and Delete handlers should always point to the lowest minor version since they are meant to handle requests of any minor version, so the routes for these handlers should not change when adding a new minor version.

Writing a new route

Getting a "Handle" on Routes

Open routes.go. Routes are defined in the Routes function, of the form {version, method, path, handler, ID}. Notice the path can contain variables, of the form /{var}/. These variables will be made available to your handler.

NOTE: Route IDs are immutable and unique. DO NOT change the ID of an existing Route; otherwise, existing configurations may break. New Route IDs can be any integer between 0 and 2147483647 (inclusive), as long as it's unique.

Creating a Handler

The first step is to create your handler. For an example, look at monitoringHandler in monitoring.go. Your handler arguments can be any data available to the router (the config and database, or what you can create from them). Passing the db or prepared Stmts is common. The handler function must return a RegexHandlerFunc. In general, you want to return an inline function, return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, p ParamMap) {....

The ResponseWriter and Request are standard Go HandlerFunc parameters. The ParamMap is a map[string]string, containing the variables from your route path.

Now, your handler just needs to load the data, format it, and write it to the ResponseWriter, like any other Go HandlerFunc.

If you're just learning Go, look at some of the other endpoints like monitoring.go, and maybe google some Golang tutorials on SQL, JSON, and HTTP. The Go documentation is also helpful, particularly https://golang.org/pkg/database/sql/ and https://golang.org/pkg/encoding/json/.

Your handler should be in its own file, where you can create any structs and helper functions you need.

Registering the Handler

Back to routes.go, you need to add your handler to the Routes function. For example, /api/2.0/cdns would look like {2.0, http.MethodGet, "cdns", wrapHeaders(wrapAuth(cdnsHandler(d.DB), d.Insecure, d.TOSecret, rd.PrivLevelStmt, CdnsPrivLevel))},.

The only thing we haven't talked about are those wrap functions. They each take a RegexHandlerFunc and return a RegexHandlerFunc, which lets them 'wrap' your handler. You almost certainly need both of them; if you're not sure, ask on the mailing list or Slack. You'll notice the wrapAuth function also takes config parameters, as well as a PrivLevel. You should create a constant in your handler file of the form EndpointPrivLevel and pass that. If your endpoint modifies data, use PrivLevelOperations, otherwise PrivLevelReadOnly.

That's it! Test your endpoint, read Contributing.md if you haven't, and submit a pull request!

If you have any trouble, or suggestions for this guide, hit us up on the mailing list or Slack.