# Learning By Doing Golang - ToDo App - 01 Let’s kick off our *Learning by Doing with Golang* series by building a **simple ToDo application**. This app will serve as our first hands-on project to understand the fundamentals of Go by applying them in a real-world context. ## 🧠 Pre-requisites Before jumping into this project, we expect you to have a **basic understanding of Golang**, including: * Basic syntax and structure * Variables and data types * Arithmetic and logical operators * Conditional statements (`if`, `switch`) * Loops (`for`) * Functions and how to define/use them If you're just starting out with Go and haven't covered these fundamentals yet, we recommend learning them first. You can find great beginner-friendly [**resources here**](https://go.dev/tour/welcome/1) , and once you're comfortable, come back and join us on this hands-on journey. > **Note:** We’re intentionally keeping this app **simple** to focus on learning. As we progress, you might notice some **discrepancies or missing best practices**—that’s by design. We’ll note these issues along the way and revisit them after we've developed a deeper understanding of Go. For now, the goal is to get started without getting overwhelmed. ## 📝 What Are We Building? We’re developing a **basic ToDo list application** that allows users to manage their tasks efficiently. The app will support the standard set of **CRUD operations**—**Create**, **Read**, **Update**, and **Delete** ToDos. ### What is ToDo app ? A **ToDo app** is a simple task management application that helps users keep track of things they need to do. > 🔗 **Note:** We are not building a frontend or UI for this app. All interactions will happen through **RESTful APIs**. This will help us focus purely on backend development using Golang, and better understand how to build, structure, and manage APIs effectively ## 🧩 Design and Requirements Before diving into the implementation, let’s understand the **design requirements** of our ToDo application and the reasoning behind each decision. ## 🔍 What Do We Need? * A place to store ToDo data * A Way to Access the content Database * A Way for Users to Interact with the App Let’s see how we are planning that ### 🗃️ 1. Data Storage — Using MySQL The first thing our app needs is a place to store the ToDo items. For this, we’ll use a **database**, as it's the most common and reliable way to store structured data in applications. Specifically, we’ll use a **MySQL database** #### 💡 Why SQL? There are two main types of databases: * **SQL (Structured Query Language)** – stores data in a **tabular format** * **NoSQL (Not only SQL)** – stores data in **document or key-value format** We're choosing **SQL (MySQL)** for the following reasons: * It’s **faster and more efficient** for structured data. * Our data is **simple and relational** (each ToDo has fields like title, description, status). * We don’t require the flexibility of a document-based (NoSQL) structure for this use case. * It fits the purpose of a basic CRUD app with limited and predictable data. ### 🔌 2. Database Access — Using Golang’s Standard Library To interact with our database and access the stored data, we need a way to **connect to the database** and **execute SQL queries**. We’ll use one of **Go’s standard libraries** together with a **MySQL driver.** This setup allows us to: * Open and manage database connections * Execute SQL commands (INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE) * Handle errors and manage resources efficiently > We'll explore the exact setup and usage of these libraries in the later section. ### 🌐 3. Application Access — Through HTTP Endpoints Now, as an end-user, how do we interact with our application? We’ll expose a set of **HTTP endpoints** that clients (like browsers, Postman, or frontend apps) can call using URLs. For example: ```sql GET https:///todos → Get all ToDos POST https:///todos → Create a new ToDo GET https:///todos/{id} → Get a specific ToDo PUT https:///todos/{id} → Update a ToDo DELETE https:///todos/{id} → Delete a ToDo ``` These endpoints will act as **entry points** to different operations within our app. Internally, each endpoint will trigger logic that interacts with the database and returns appropriate responses. ## 🧠 Wrapping Up Now, we have a **high-level understanding** of what we need to build our ToDo app—and more importantly, **why** we need each component. Don’t worry if everything doesn’t fully click yet. As we **build more apps** and go deeper into each concept, things will start to make sense. The key is to keep going. ## 🚀 What’s Next? In the next article, we’ll focus entirely on the **Database Layer** of our application. Here's what we’ll cover: * How to **set up a MySQL database** locally * How to **connect to the database using Golang** * Different approaches to database interaction in Go—and **why we’re choosing a specific one** * Step-by-step guide to **implement the database layer** in our ToDo app We’ll apply everything we learn directly into our project, laying a strong foundation for how our app stores and retrieves data.