Building a Full-Stack Web App with Rust
Rust is gaining popularity as a programming language, and its ecosystem is rapidly maturing. In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to build a simple full-stack web application using Rust, covering the entire development process from setup to deployment.
Setup and Configuration
To get started, you’ll need a recent Rust installation and a Postgres database running on port 7878 (e.g., using Docker). We’ll create a multimodule workspace using Cargo, which will allow us to share code between the frontend and backend parts of our application.
Shared Code and Common Functionality
Our application will consist of three separate Rust projects: common, frontend, and backend. The common project will hold the shared code between the frontend and backend, including data models and helpers.
Backend Development
For the backend, we’ll use the Warp web framework and the Diesel database library. We’ll define our database schema, create a database connection pool, and implement API endpoints for listing owners, fetching owner details, creating owners, creating pets, and deleting pets.
Frontend Development
For the frontend, we’ll use Yew, a Rust-based framework for building web applications. We’ll create a simple web app with routing, forms, and API calls to the backend. Our app will feature a detailed view for owners and their list of pets, enabling users to delete and add pets as needed.
Testing and Deployment
Once we’ve completed the implementation, we can run both the frontend and backend with a Postgres database running on port 7878. We can test the application by creating owners, adding pets, and deleting them.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we’ve demonstrated how to build a simple full-stack web application fully in Rust. While the Rust web ecosystem is still maturing, it’s impressive to see how far we can go with the current state of the ecosystem. With continued development and improvement, the future of web development in Rust looks promising!
Debugging and Performance Monitoring
Debugging Rust applications can be challenging, especially when users experience issues that are hard to reproduce. Consider using LogRocket, a tool that provides full visibility into web frontends for Rust apps, allowing you to monitor and track performance, automatically surface errors, and more.