FusionAuth Go Client Library

Go Client Library

The Go client library allows you to integrate FusionAuth with your Go application.

Source Code:

https://github.com/FusionAuth/go-client

Installation

go mod init example.com/test/fusionauth
go mod tidy

Example Usage

Put this file in fusionauth.go

package main

import (
    "net/http"
    "net/url"
    "time"
    "fmt"

    "github.com/FusionAuth/go-client/pkg/fusionauth"
)

const host = "http://localhost:9011"

var apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY"

var httpClient = &http.Client{
	Timeout: time.Second * 10,
}

var baseURL, _ = url.Parse(host)

{/*  Construct a new FusionAuth Client */}
var client = fusionauth.NewClient(httpClient, baseURL, apiKey)

func main() {
    response, errors, err := client.RetrieveUserByEmail("user@example.com")
    if err != nil {
        // err is a transport layer error (connection failed, etc)
        fmt.Println(err)   
        return
    }
    if errors != nil {
        // err is a FusionAuth response error (user couldn't be found, etc)
        fmt.Println(response.StatusCode)
        return
    }
    fmt.Println(response.User.Email)   
    fmt.Println(response.User.FirstName)   
    fmt.Println(response.User.LastName)   
}

To build an executable:

go build

To run:

./fusionauth

Usage Suggestions

FusionAuth client libraries are a thin wrapper around the REST API. Client libraries are typically used in two different ways.

First, they can be used to access the FusionAuth APIs in a familiar format, leveraging language features like auto-completion. When used for this, they can be helpful to script FusionAuth configuration, automate common tasks, and create copies of existing applications, groups and more.

To use the client libraries effectively in this way, it is helpful to review the source code of the client library and the API documentation, which contains the JSON structure. The API documentation is very thorough about the JSON objects it expects as part of the payload as well as what parameters are required when.

Second, client libraries can exchange a token to let a user to log in via the Authorization Code Grant. This is a secondary use of these libraries. This process is best done by using a language specific OAuth library, which will work with FusionAuth. Here is a community curated list of such libraries.

Client libraries do not currently provide higher level functionality such as token management. Here is an open issue detailing some requested higher level functionality. Please feel free to file an issue or upvote this one if you desire it.

You can always directly call the REST API if the client library functionality doesn’t work for you. All the client libraries use the REST API.

In general, the request object will either be string parameters or a complex object depending on the type of API call being made. Any request object will be mapped by the library to a JSON object required by the corresponding API method. Examining the API documents for the operations you’re trying to call will therefore be useful, especially if you are using language without static typing.

The response object will typically contain:

a status corresponding to the HTTP status code returned by the API. It may also be -1 if no HTTP request was successfully made
a JSON success object if the call succeeded.
a JSON error object with an intelligible message if the status code is 4xx or 5xx.
an exception object if there was no HTTP request sent or there was no reasonable response from the server.

PATCH requests

Available Since Version 1.14.0

PATCH requests are handled differently than you might expect. PATCH operations allow you to modify only parts of an object in FusionAuth.

In client libraries with static typing, such as this one for Go, there are no strongly typed objects set as part of a PATCH request. Instead, a hash, dictionary or map object is used. Ensure that you are using multi level dictionaries that create JSON with nested keys, otherwise the PATCH request will fail. This allows use of key value pairs to build a PATCH request.

For example, if you want to change only the name of an application using PATCH, you would want the JSON that is sent across the wire to look like this:

Example PATCH Application JSON

{
  "application": {
     "name": "hooli-bought-us"
   }
}

If you built a typed application request object and then serialized it, it would contain empty arrays or other default values. This would modify the object you were changing in ways you didn’t expect. This would likely cause the system behave in ways you don’t want.

By requiring you to build nested key value pairs, the JSON serialization works correctly. This is essentially a limitation of the current implementation in Go and FusionAuth PATCH support.

For this behavior to work correctly with typed objects, FusionAuth would need to ensure the domain object had no default values, and then instruct the serializer to omit empty objects, empty arrays and other values from the resulting JSON. This would ensure that the PATCH was performed correctly with no unwanted side effects.

There is an open issue to update the client libraries to handle PATCH requests with more nuance. When implemented, there may be some additional options for configuring a JSON serializer to allow use of typed domain objects for PATCH.

An alternative that allows you to use typed objects immediately is to perform a retrieve operation, modify the object in memory, and then execute an update operation. These are functionally equivalent to a single PATCH operation.

Example apps

Golang API quickstart - Golang API quickstart tutorial showing how to integrate FusionAuth with a Golang API application
Golang device grant - A golang client using the device grant
Golang JWT - JWT creation and decoding examples with the jwt-go library
Golang JWT API Gateway - Protecting a microservice with a JWT middleware
Golang quickstart - Golang quickstart tutorial showing how to integrate FusionAuth with a Golang application

Upgrade Policy

Besides the releases made to keep track of the FusionAuth API as mentioned above, SDKs and Client Libraries may periodically receive updates with bug fixes, security patches, tests, code samples, or documentation changes.

These releases may also update dependencies, language engines, and operating systems, as we’ll follow the deprecation and sunsetting policies of the underlying technologies that the libraries use.

This means that after a language, framework, or operating system is deprecated by their own maintainer, our SDKs and Client Libraries that depend on it will also be deprecated by us, and will eventually be updated to use a newer version.

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