Building Web APIs with Rust
State of the Union
Rainer Stropek | @rstropek@fosstodon.org | @rstropek
Introduction
Rainer Stropek
- Passionate software developers for 25+ years
- Microsoft MVP, Regional Director
- Trainer, Teacher, Mentor
- 💕 community
Why? How?
Why This Session?
- Rust 🦀 is becoming more and more popular
- People from other languages/platforms are coming on board
- Rust is used in more areas of software development (e.g. APIs)
- Many Web API-related frameworks for Rust
- Where to start?
- What to use?
- Guide through Rust's rich and diverse web API ecosystem 🌂
- No deep dive, no exhaustive market analysis, an overview
- Share personal experiences and opinions
- Provide a starting point for a deeper, project-specific research
How Did I Go About it?
- A personal selection of four web API frameworks for Rust
- My selection criteria
- Widely used (huge number of downloads according to crates.io)
- Feature-rich for developing RESTful web APIs
- Based on tokio
- Builds with stable Rust
- Personal interests and preferences
- If your favorite framework is missing, I apologize
- We only have limited time⌛
- Not mentioning a framework does not say anything about its quality!
Agenda
fn main() {
for framework in ["Actix Web", "Rocket", "Warp", "Axum"] {
quick::intro(framework);
look_at::some_code(framework);
personal::statement(framework);
}
summary::<closing>();
}
About Actix Web
- Well-established, well maintained
- Exists for many years, with new releases every few months
- Currently in version 4.3
- Feature-rich (including WebSockets)
- Known to be fast ⚡
- I did not do benchmarks
- Benchmarks depend on many factors
- However, results in Techempower Benchmarks are impressive 👏🏻
Demo
Time!
My Thoughts About Actix Web
- Easy to learn
- Experienced web developer? You will feel at home pretty quickly
- Experienced web developer? You will feel at home pretty quickly
- I like the API and the programming model
- Everything is typed
- Everything is typed
- Documentation 👍🏻
- Documentation is available
- Large selection of examples for various use-cases
- So?
- Not my personal favorite, but I would enjoy doing a project with it
About Rocket
- Well-established, well maintained
- Exists for many years, quite long since the last non-RC version
- Currently in version 0.4.10, but 0.5.0-rc.2 available
- Feature-rich (including Diesel support, but no WebSockets)
- Claims to be simple, "batteries included" - which it is on my opinion
Demo
Time!
My Thoughts About Rocket
- Easy to learn, even easier than Actix Web
- Experienced web developer? No problem getting started!
- Experienced web developer? No problem getting started!
- I like the API and the programming model
- Everything is typed, but you shouldn't be allergic to macros 😉
- Everything is typed, but you shouldn't be allergic to macros 😉
- Documentation 👍🏻👍🏻
- Documentation is available and quite detailed (incl. 0.5 RC)
- Large selection of examples for various use-cases
- So?
- Used it, 💗 it
- Eagerly awaiting 0.5 and following versions
Warp
About Warp
Demo
Time!
My Thoughts About Warp
- Interesting 🤔, intellectually challenging for me
- I have seen quite a few frameworks, but Warp's filters are new to me
- I have seen quite a few frameworks, but Warp's filters are new to me
- Personally, I do not like the programming model and API so much
- Super long and complex types make working with Warp difficult
- Super long and complex types make working with Warp difficult
- Documentation is available but could be enhanced
- Primarily API documentation, not so much conceptual docs
- Examples are available, fill some gaps of the docs
- So?
- Interesting, but personally I would not use it in a new project
Axum
About Axum
- Rather young, but getting quite some attention
- New versions every few months
- Currently in version 0.6.7 available
- Relies heavily on tower/tower-http, no custom middleware system
- No Macros 🙀
- Seems to be fast ⚡
- Like with Actix, Techempower Benchmarks are impressive 👏🏻
Demo
Time!
My Thoughts About Axum
- My current favorite in terms of Rust web API frameworks
- 💗 the API
-
💗 the tight integration with other Tokio crates
- Documentation is available but could be enhanced
- Primarily API documentation, not so much conceptual docs
- Large and very helpful selection of examples for various use-cases
- So?
- Looking forward to doing first real-world projects with it
What about...
Spin
Demo
Time!
My Thoughts About Spin
What an awesome future 🤩!
But a tiny bit too early for production 😉
So?
So?
- You have choices 😀
- You must make a choice 🤔
- You must make a choice 🤔
- Rust for web API development?
- Definitely works!
- Definitely works!
- Are we at par with other platforms (e.g. ASP.NET Core)?
- No, not yet. They have more features and offer similar perf.
- Sweet spot: Web APIs that benefit from Rust's unique features
(e.g. performance, resource efficiency, featureful language)
- Most importantly: Is it fun? Is it enjoyable?
- Oh yeah, it definitely is 🥳🎊
Building Web APIs with Rust
Q&A
Rainer Stropek | @rstropek@fosstodon.org | @rstropek