Web APIs with Rust and Actix Web

Class Duration

21 hours of live training delivered over 3-5 days to accommodate your scheduling needs

Student Prerequisites

Experience with Rust programming
Experience with REST APIs is recommended but not required

Target Audience

This course assumes prior experience with Rust. Experience with the SQL language and PostgreSQL or SQL Server is a plus.

Description

Many programmers think of Rust as only a systems programming language, but it can be so much more. Rust is a great language for building web server-based REST API applications. There are several popular REST API frameworks for Rust, this course covers the Actix Web framework. In this course, you'll learn how to build REST APIs with Rust and Actix Web. You'll learn how to create routes, handlers, and extractors. Also, you'll learn how to connect to a database and perform CRUD operations. By the end of this course, you'll be able to create your own REST APIs with Rust and Actix Web.

Objectives

Understand the Principles of Building a REST API
Explore how to Create Web APIs with Rust and Actix
Connect a REST API to a Database (PostgreSQL or SQL Server)
Learn how to Configure Routes
Explore Extractors, Handlers, and Middleware
Learn how to Publish and Host a REST API

Training Materials

All students receive comprehensive courseware covering all topics in the course. Courseware is distributed via GitHub in the form of documentation and extensive code samples. Students practice the topics covered through challenging hands-on lab exercises.

Software Requirements

Students will need a free, personal GitHub account to access the courseware. Students will need permission to install Rust and Visual Studio Code on their computers. Also, students will need permission to install Rust Crates and Visual Studio Extensions. Students will need a local instance of Postgresql or SQL Server installed on their computer (using Docker is acceptable). Finally, students will need CURL and/or Postman installed on their computer. If students are unable to configure a local development environment on their machines, a cloud-based environment can be provided.

Training Topics

Introduction

REST Overview

What is REST?
What is a REST API?
What is a REST Client?
HTTP Methods and Resource Operations
URLs, Query Strings, and Path Parameters
HTTP Status Codes
HTTP Headers and Body
CURL and Postman

Web APIs with Actix

What is a Web API?
What is Actix?
How does it compare to Express, Flask, and ASP.NET MVC?
Create an Actix Project
Run and Debug Actix Applications with VS Code

Routing

What is Routing?
Map HTTP Routes to Rust Functions
Route Parameters
Wire up Routes in an Actix Web Application

Extractors

What is an Extractor?
Path Extractor
Query String Extractor
JSON Extractor
URL-Encoded Form Extractor
Other Extractors
Custom Extractors

Request Handlers

What is a Request Handler?
Stages of Handling a Request
Responder Trait
Respond with a Custom Type
Streaming Response Body
Different Response Types

Middleware

What is Middleware?
Request/Response Pipeline
Logging
User Sessions
Error Handling
Custom Middleware

Static Files

Database Programming

What is a Database?
Connect to a Database
Query data from the database
Modify data in the database

Testing

Integration Testing
Stream Response Testing
Unit Testing Extractors
Unit Testing Middleware
Unit Testing Responders

Deployment

Build a Release Version
Public the Release Version
Hosting Considerations
Dockerize the Application