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Proxy

Proxy in Go

Proxy is a structural design pattern that provides an object that acts as a substitute for a real service object used by a client. A proxy receives client requests, does some work (access control, caching, etc.) and then passes the request to a service object.

The proxy object has the same interface as a service, which makes it interchangeable with a real object when passed to a client.

Conceptual Example

A web server such as Nginx can act as a proxy for your application server:

  • It provides controlled access to your application server.
  • It can do rate limiting.
  • It can do request caching.

server.go: Subject

package main

type server interface {
	handleRequest(string, string) (int, string)
}

nginx.go: Proxy

package main

type Nginx struct {
	application       *Application
	maxAllowedRequest int
	rateLimiter       map[string]int
}

func newNginxServer() *Nginx {
	return &Nginx{
		application:       &Application{},
		maxAllowedRequest: 2,
		rateLimiter:       make(map[string]int),
	}
}

func (n *Nginx) handleRequest(url, method string) (int, string) {
	allowed := n.checkRateLimiting(url)
	if !allowed {
		return 403, "Not Allowed"
	}
	return n.application.handleRequest(url, method)
}

func (n *Nginx) checkRateLimiting(url string) bool {
	if n.rateLimiter[url] == 0 {
		n.rateLimiter[url] = 1
	}
	if n.rateLimiter[url] > n.maxAllowedRequest {
		return false
	}
	n.rateLimiter[url] = n.rateLimiter[url] + 1
	return true
}

application.go: Real subject

package main

type Application struct {
}

func (a *Application) handleRequest(url, method string) (int, string) {
	if url == "/app/status" && method == "GET" {
		return 200, "Ok"
	}

	if url == "/create/user" && method == "POST" {
		return 201, "User Created"
	}
	return 404, "Not Ok"
}

main.go: Client code

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {

	nginxServer := newNginxServer()
	appStatusURL := "/app/status"
	createuserURL := "/create/user"

	httpCode, body := nginxServer.handleRequest(appStatusURL, "GET")
	fmt.Printf("\nUrl: %s\nHttpCode: %d\nBody: %s\n", appStatusURL, httpCode, body)

	httpCode, body = nginxServer.handleRequest(appStatusURL, "GET")
	fmt.Printf("\nUrl: %s\nHttpCode: %d\nBody: %s\n", appStatusURL, httpCode, body)

	httpCode, body = nginxServer.handleRequest(appStatusURL, "GET")
	fmt.Printf("\nUrl: %s\nHttpCode: %d\nBody: %s\n", appStatusURL, httpCode, body)

	httpCode, body = nginxServer.handleRequest(createuserURL, "POST")
	fmt.Printf("\nUrl: %s\nHttpCode: %d\nBody: %s\n", appStatusURL, httpCode, body)

	httpCode, body = nginxServer.handleRequest(createuserURL, "GET")
	fmt.Printf("\nUrl: %s\nHttpCode: %d\nBody: %s\n", appStatusURL, httpCode, body)
}

output.txt: Execution result

Url: /app/status
HttpCode: 200
Body: Ok

Url: /app/status
HttpCode: 200
Body: Ok

Url: /app/status
HttpCode: 403
Body: Not Allowed

Url: /app/status
HttpCode: 201
Body: User Created

Url: /app/status
HttpCode: 404
Body: Not Ok

Proxy in Other Languages

Proxy in C# Proxy in C++ Proxy in Java Proxy in PHP Proxy in Python Proxy in Ruby Proxy in Rust Proxy in Swift Proxy in TypeScript