ServiceKit

ServiceKit is a minimalist foundation for building web services in Swift, micro or otherwise.

A super simple example:

import ServiceKit

let service = Service() { req, res in
  res.write("Sup, nerds?")
}

service.listen()

Getting Started

Getting set up is pretty quick. Make a folder for your project and start a new Swift Package:

swift package init --name DemoService --type executable

Then, update your Package.swift file. If you’re new to Swift this is the main manifest file for your project. Similar to package.json in Node, for example.

// swift-tools-version:5.0
import PackageDescription

let package = Package(
    name: "DemoService",
    dependencies: [
        // Dependencies declare other packages that this package depends on.
        // This is the magic line. 
        .package(url: "https://github.com/cbaltzer/ServiceKit", from: "0.1.0"),
    ],
    targets: [
        .target(
            name: "DemoService",
            dependencies: ["ServiceKit"]), // Tell the linker to actually connect our dependency
        .testTarget(
            name: "DemoServiceTests",
            dependencies: ["DemoService"]),
    ]
)

The initializer for your package should have provided a main.swift file. Fill it out with a Hello World sample to make sure everything works:

import ServiceKit

let demo = Service() { req, res in
  res.write("Hi, it works!")
}

demo.listen()

Now finally to launch your new service:

swift run 

Check it out at http://localhost:5000/

Environment Setup

Xcode (Mac)

This is the way to go if you’re on a Mac. Installing Xcode from the Mac App Store will include the Swift toolchains.

Editing is also easiest with Xcode:

swift package generate-xcodeproj

VSCode (Mac, Linux, Windows)

Getting a Swift dev environment set up on any platform is made pretty easy with the Remote - Containers extension. This will launch a Docker container with the specified environment, including toolchains and other extensions.

Check out the .devcontainer folder for reference.

Deploying

Deploying is also easiest with Docker. Check out the Dockerfile for a basic example.