As I mentioned earlier, it’s straightforward to use SQLite as the relational database in Go applications. Your data is stored in one single file with a well-defined format and there is no hassle with installing and configuring a separate database. However, for any serious application you most likely want backup of your data. If your dataset is not very large, and it is OK to lose updates since the last backup, there is a very simple option.

I have been learning the Go programming language lately, and it’s remarkably easy to build simple web apps with it. In particular, with just a few simple tricks, you can make the deployment of such web apps super simple: just one single standalone statically linked binary which stores its data in one single file. The Go standard library contains everything needed to build a basic web app: A production-ready HTTP server An URL router Interface for SQL databases Parsing command line options Simple logging HTML templating HTTP client If you use the embed feature, you can embed templates and static resources (CSS, JavaScript, images) and produce one single self-contained binary.

As I wrote a while ago, I have been trying different approaches for server-side HTML generation in Kotlin, with focus on good support for generating partials without a single root element (which is important for htmx). Given Kotlin’s good support for internal DSLs, I decided to explore that route, and try kotlinx.html and HtmlFlow. They both make great promises of encoding the entire HTML standard and enforce valid HTML at compile time.