Templating / MVC
GoNest supports server-side HTML rendering using Go’s html/template. This enables traditional MVC patterns alongside your API routes. Equivalent to NestJS view engine integration.
Setup
Create a template engine and register it with the application:
engine, err := gonest.NewGoTemplateEngine(gonest.GoTemplateEngineOptions{
Dir: "./views",
Extension: ".html", // default
})
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
app := gonest.Create(AppModule)
app.SetViewEngine(engine)From Embedded Files
Use embed.FS for self-contained binaries:
//go:embed views/*.html
var viewsFS embed.FS
engine, err := gonest.NewGoTemplateEngineFromFS(viewsFS, "views/*.html")Custom Template Functions
engine, err := gonest.NewGoTemplateEngine(gonest.GoTemplateEngineOptions{
Dir: "./views",
FuncMap: template.FuncMap{
"upper": strings.ToUpper,
"formatDate": func(t time.Time) string {
return t.Format("Jan 2, 2006")
},
},
})Rendering Templates
Use gonest.Render in your handlers:
func (c *HomeController) Register(r gonest.Router) {
r.Get("/", c.index)
r.Get("/about", c.about)
}
func (c *HomeController) index(ctx gonest.Context) error {
return gonest.Render(ctx, "index.html", map[string]any{
"Title": "Home",
"Articles": c.service.GetRecent(),
})
}
func (c *HomeController) about(ctx gonest.Context) error {
return gonest.Render(ctx, "about.html", map[string]any{
"Title": "About Us",
})
}The response Content-Type is automatically set to text/html; charset=utf-8.
RenderInterceptor
For automatic template rendering based on route metadata, use RenderInterceptor:
app.UseGlobalInterceptors(gonest.NewRenderInterceptor(engine))
// In controller -- set "render" metadata to the template name
r.Get("/dashboard", c.dashboard).SetMetadata("render", "dashboard.html")The interceptor renders the template using the handler’s return value as template data.
TemplateEngine (Alternative)
GoNest also provides a simpler TemplateEngine with lazy template loading:
engine := gonest.NewTemplateEngine("./views")
engine.SetExtension(".html")
engine.AddFunc("upper", strings.ToUpper)
// Use RenderHandler for a concise route definition
r.Get("/", gonest.RenderHandler(engine, "index", func(ctx gonest.Context) any {
return map[string]any{"Title": "Home"}
}))Static Files
Serve static assets (CSS, JS, images) from a directory:
func (c *Controller) Register(r gonest.Router) {
r.Get("/static/*", gonest.StaticFiles("/static", "./public"))
}This serves files from ./public under the /static URL prefix. For example, ./public/style.css is served at /static/style.css.
Example Template
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>{{.Title}}</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>{{.Title}}</h1>
{{range .Articles}}
<article>
<h2>{{.Name}}</h2>
<p>{{.Summary}}</p>
</article>
{{end}}
</body>
</html>See example/21-mvc for a complete working example.