Zero to Production in Rust

This project is a step-by-step reconstruction of the application described in the book "Zero to Production in Rust" by Luca Palmieri. It demonstrates how to build a production-ready web application using Rust.

Project Overview

The application is a newsletter subscription service that allows users to subscribe with their email and name. It's built using modern Rust web development practices and follows a clean architecture approach.

Steps Taken So Far

1. Project Setup

   • Created a new Rust project with both a library and a binary component
   • Set up the project structure with separate modules for different concerns

2. Web Server Implementation

   • Integrated Actix Web as the web framework
   • Implemented a health check endpoint for monitoring
   • Set up a subscription endpoint for newsletter sign-ups

3. Database Integration

   • Added PostgreSQL support using SQLx
   • Created a database migration for the subscriptions table
   • Implemented database connection pooling

4. Configuration Management

   • Added structured configuration using the config crate
   • Created a YAML configuration file for application settings
   • Implemented environment-based configuration

5. Development Tooling

   • Added database initialization scripts for development
   • Set up Docker integration for PostgreSQL

Project Structure

• src/: Source code

  • main.rs: Application entry point
  • lib.rs: Library exports
  • configuration.rs: Configuration management
  • startup.rs: Server setup and initialization
  • routes/: API endpoints
    • health_check.rs: Health check endpoint
    • subscriptions.rs: Subscription handling

• migrations/: Database migrations

  • 20250502133713_create_subscriptions_table.sql: Creates the subscriptions table

• scripts/: Utility scripts

  • init_db.ps1: PowerShell script for setting up the database (Windows)
  • init_db.sh: Bash script for setting up the database (Unix/Linux)

• configuration.yaml: Application configuration

Technologies Used

• Rust: Programming language
• Actix Web: Web framework
• SQLx: Database toolkit and ORM
• PostgreSQL: Database
• Tokio: Async runtime
• config: Configuration management
• serde: Serialization/deserialization
• uuid: UUID generation
• chrono: Date and time handling
• Docker: Containerization for development

Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain (install via rustup)
• Docker (for running PostgreSQL)
• SQLx CLI (install with cargo install --version='~0.8' sqlx-cli --no-default-features --features rustls,postgres)

Database Setup

1. Run the database initialization script:

   Windows:

   .\scripts\init_db.ps1

   Unix/Linux:

   ./scripts/init_db.sh

   This will:

   • Start a PostgreSQL container
   • Create the application database user
   • Create the database
   • Run migrations

Running the Application

1. Build and run the application:

   cargo run
   

2. The application will be available at http://127.0.0.1:8000

API Endpoints

• GET /health_check: Health check endpoint that returns a 200 OK response
• POST /subscriptions: Subscribe to the newsletter with email and name

Next Steps

Future enhancements could include:

• Email validation
• Authentication and authorization
• Newsletter sending functionality
• Admin interface
• Deployment configuration