Using SSE in Go web server

Server Sent Events the easy way

Original Gopher image created by Renee French, used Gopher image created by Maria Letta

1. part: creating the service
2. part: improving the service
3. part: upgrade for web
4. part: you are reading it right now
5. part: simple javascript frontend functionality
6. part: frontend — backend communication
7. part: server-side logging
8. part: run it all in docker
9. part: adding database container
10. part: database — service communication

Addition 1: functions, methods, pointers and interfaces
Addition 2: websocket communication
Addition 3: socket communication

What does it mean, SSE? Why should I use it?

SSE stands for Server Sent Events, standardised push technology, that is very easy to use.

If you want to update something on a web page, you can use SSE. Be it sending a time, table, colour, notification badge, …

In this article, we will use a simple example, where you’ll see the power of SSE.

Prepare the project

Start with adding the right module, that has this functionality already built-in on the server side of program.

We will use julienschmidt’s repository again, this time it is module from github.com/julienschmidt/sse. So add the new module and import it. Your import block of code should look like code below.

Adding SSE functionality

Then navigate to run() method and add a new line of code just under your router := httprouter.New(). This line of code will create a new streamer called timer. Ignore the red squiggly line as we will immediately use that streamer.