formam

A Go package to decode HTTP form and query parameters. The only requirement is Go 1.10 or later.

Features

• Infinite nesting for maps, structs and slices.
• Support UnmarshalText() interface in values and keys of maps.
• Supported map keys are string, int and variants, uint and variants, uintptr, float32, float64, bool, struct, custom types to one of the above types registered by function or UnmarshalText method, a pointer to one of the above types
• A field with interface{} that has a map, struct or slice as value is accessible.
• Decode time.Time with format 2006-01-02 by its UnmarshalText() method.
• Decode url.URL.
• Append to slice and array types without explicitly indicating an index.
• Register a function for a custom type.

Performance

You can see the performance in formam-benchmark compared with ajg/form, gorilla/schema, go-playground/form and built-in/json.

Basic usage example

In form HTML

• Use . to access a struct field (e.g. struct.field1).
• Use [<index>] to access tje specific slice/array index (e.g. struct.array[0]). It's not necessary to add an index to append data.
• Use [<key>] to access map keys (e.g.. struct.map[es-ES]).

<form method="POST">
  <input type="text" name="Name" value="Sony">
  <input type="text" name="Location.Country" value="Japan">
  <input type="text" name="Location.City" value="Tokyo">
  <input type="text" name="Products[0].Name" value="Playstation 4">
  <input type="text" name="Products[0].Type" value="Video games">
  <input type="text" name="Products[1].Name" value="TV Bravia 32">
  <input type="text" name="Products[1].Type" value="TVs">
  <input type="text" name="Founders[0]" value="Masaru Ibuka">
  <input type="text" name="Founders[0]" value="Akio Morita">
  <input type="text" name="Employees" value="90000">
  <input type="text" name="public" value="true">
  <input type="url" name="website" value="http://www.sony.net">
  <input type="date" name="foundation" value="1946-05-07">
  <input type="text" name="Interface.ID" value="12">
  <input type="text" name="Interface.Name" value="Go Programming Language">
  <input type="submit">
</form>

In Go

You can use the formam struct tag to ensure the form values are unmarshalled in the currect struct fields.

type InterfaceStruct struct {
    ID   int
    Name string
}

type Company struct {
  Public     bool      `formam:"public"`
  Website    url.URL   `formam:"website"`
  Foundation time.Time `formam:"foundation"`
  Name       string
  Location   struct {
    Country  string
    City     string
  }
  Products   []struct {
    Name string
    Type string
  }
  Founders   []string
  Employees  int64

  Interface interface{}
}

func MyHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) error {
  r.ParseForm()

  m := Company{
      // it's is possible to access to the fields although it's an interface field!
      Interface: &InterfaceStruct{},
  }
  dec := formam.NewDecoder(&formam.DecoderOptions{TagName: "formam"})
  return dec.Decode(r.Form, &m)
}

Types

Supported types in the destination struct are:

• string
• bool
• int, int8, int16, int32, int64
• uint, uint8, uint16, uint32, uint64
• float32, float64
• slice, array
• struct and struct anonymous
• map
• interface{}
• time.Time
• url.URL
• custom types to one of the above types
• a pointer to one of the above types

Custom Marshaling

You can umarshal data and map keys by implementing the encoding.TextUnmarshaler interface.

If the forms sends multiple values then only the first value is passed to UnmarshalText(), but if the name ends with [] then it's called for all values.

Custom Type

You can register a function for a custom type using the RegisterCustomType() method. This will work for any number of given fields or all fields with the given type.

Registered type have preference over the UnmarshalText method unless the PrefUnmarshalText option is used.

All fields

decoder.RegisterCustomType(func(vals []string) (interface{}, error) {
        return time.Parse("2006-01-02", vals[0])
}, []interface{}{time.Time{}}, nil)

Specific fields

package main

type Times struct {
    Timestamp   time.Time
    Time        time.Time
    TimeDefault time.Time
}

func main() {
    var t Timestamp

    dec := NewDecoder(nil)

    // for Timestamp field
    dec.RegisterCustomType(func(vals []string) (interface{}, error) {
            return time.Parse("2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00", vals[0])
    }, []interface{}{time.Time{}}, []interface{}{&t.Timestamp{}}) 

    // for Time field
    dec.RegisterCustomType(func(vals []string) (interface{}, error) {
                return time.Parse("Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST", vals[0])
    }, []interface{}{time.Time{}}, []interface{}{&t.Time{}}) 

    // for field that not be Time or Timestamp, e.g. in this example, TimeDefault.
    dec.RegisterCustomType(func(vals []string) (interface{}, error) {
                return time.Parse("2006-01-02", vals[0])
    }, []interface{}{time.Time{}}, nil)

    dec.Decode(url.Values{}, &t)
}

Notes

Version 2 is compatible with old syntax to access to maps (map.key), but brackets are the preferred way to access a map (map[key]).