Removing fields from struct or hiding them in JSON Response

Question

I\'ve created an API in Go that, upon being called, performs a query, creates an instance of a struct, and then encodes that struct as JSON before sending back to the caller

Answer 1

I didn't have the same problem but similar. Below code solves your problem too, of course if you don't mind performance issue. Before implement that kind of solution to your system I recommend you to redesign your structure if you can. Sending variable structure response is over-engineering. I believe a response structure represents a contract between a request and resource and it should't be depend requests.(you can make un-wanted fields null, I do). In some cases we have to implement this design, if you believe you are in that cases here is the play link and code I use.

type User2 struct {
    ID       int    `groups:"id" json:"id,omitempty"`
    Username string `groups:"username" json:"username,omitempty"`
    Nickname string `groups:"nickname" json:"nickname,omitempty"`
}

type User struct {
    ID       int    `groups:"private,public" json:"id,omitempty"`
    Username string `groups:"private" json:"username,omitempty"`
    Nickname string `groups:"public" json:"nickname,omitempty"`
}

var (
    tagName = "groups"
)

//OmitFields sets fields nil by checking their tag group value and access control tags(acTags)
func OmitFields(obj interface{}, acTags []string) {
    //nilV := reflect.Value{}
    sv := reflect.ValueOf(obj).Elem()
    st := sv.Type()
    if sv.Kind() == reflect.Struct {
        for i := 0; i < st.NumField(); i++ {
            fieldVal := sv.Field(i)
            if fieldVal.CanSet() {
                tagStr := st.Field(i).Tag.Get(tagName)
                if len(tagStr) == 0 {
                    continue
                }
                tagList := strings.Split(strings.Replace(tagStr, " ", "", -1), ",")
                //fmt.Println(tagList)
                // ContainsCommonItem checks whether there is at least one common item in arrays
                if !ContainsCommonItem(tagList, acTags) {
                    fieldVal.Set(reflect.Zero(fieldVal.Type()))
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

//ContainsCommonItem checks if arrays have at least one equal item
func ContainsCommonItem(arr1 []string, arr2 []string) bool {
    for i := 0; i < len(arr1); i++ {
        for j := 0; j < len(arr2); j++ {
            if arr1[i] == arr2[j] {
                return true
            }
        }
    }
    return false
}
func main() {
    u := User{ID: 1, Username: "very secret", Nickname: "hinzir"}
    //assume authenticated user doesn't has permission to access private fields
    OmitFields(&u, []string{"public"}) 
    bytes, _ := json.Marshal(&u)
    fmt.Println(string(bytes))


    u2 := User2{ID: 1, Username: "very secret", Nickname: "hinzir"}
    //you want to filter fields by field names
    OmitFields(&u2, []string{"id", "nickname"}) 
    bytes, _ = json.Marshal(&u2)
    fmt.Println(string(bytes))

}