Golang : Get current URL example

One of the common tasks that a web application developer will encounter is on how to get the currently viewed URL by a visitor. Being able to detect currently viewed URL will help in coding the customization of the page content to suit the visitor and improve UX such as displaying relevant navigation path or bread crumbs.

Below is an example function that returns the full URL (including segments) of the page being currently viewed.

 package main

 import (
  "net/http"
  "os"
 )

 func CurrentURL(r *http.Request) string {
  hostname, err := os.Hostname()

  if err != nil {
 panic(err)
  }

  return hostname + r.URL.Path
 }

 func DisplayCurrentURL(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  w.Write([]byte("[current url] : " + CurrentURL(r) + "\r\n"))
 }

 func main() {
  // http.Handler
  mux := http.NewServeMux()
  mux.HandleFunc("/", DisplayCurrentURL)
  http.ListenAndServe("", mux)
 }

Run this code and point your web browser to the server and enter a few URL segments to test it out yourself.

Happy coding!

References:

https://www.socketloop.com/references/golang-os-hostname-function-example

https://www.socketloop.com/tutorials/golang-parsing-or-breaking-down-url