Golang downcasting list of structs - go

Question

I want to be able to unmarshal yaml files less rigidly. That is, my library has a predefined number of options the yaml file must have. Then, the user should be able to extend this to include any custom options.
Here is what I have
package main
import (
"net/http"
"yamlcms"
"github.com/julienschmidt/httprouter"
)
type Page struct {
*yamlcms.Page
Title string
Date string
}
func getBlogRoutes() {
pages := []*Page{}
yamlcms.ReadDir("html", pages)
}
// This section is a work in progress, I only include it for loose context
func main() {
router := httprouter.New()
//blogRoutes := getBlogRoutes()
//for _, blogRoute := range *blogRoutes {
// router.Handle(blogRoute.Method, blogRoute.Pattern,
// func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, _ httprouter.Params) {})
//}
http.ListenAndServe(":8080", router)
}
Here is the yamlcms package:
package yamlcms
import (
"io/ioutil"
"os"
"strings"
"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
)
type Page struct {
Slug string `yaml:"slug"`
File string `yaml:"file"`
}
func (page *Page) ReadFile(file string) (err error) {
fileContents, err := ioutil.ReadFile(file)
if err != nil {
return
}
err = yaml.Unmarshal(fileContents, &page)
return
}
func isYamlFile(fileInfo os.FileInfo) bool {
return !fileInfo.IsDir() && strings.HasSuffix(fileInfo.Name(), ".yaml")
}
func ReadDir(dir string, pages []*Page) (err error) {
filesInfo, err := ioutil.ReadDir(dir)
if err != nil {
return
}
for i, fileInfo := range filesInfo {
if isYamlFile(fileInfo) {
pages[i].ReadFile(fileInfo.Name())
}
}
return
}
There is a compiler issue here:
src/main.go:19: cannot use pages (type []*Page) as type []*yamlcms.Page in argument to yamlcms.ReadDir
My main intent in this question is to learn the idiomatic way of doing this kind of thing in Go. Other 3rd-party solutions may exist but I am not immediately interested in them because I have problems like this frequently in Go having to do with inheritance, etc. So along the lines of what I've presented, how can I best (idiomatically) accomplish what I am going for?
EDIT:
So I've made some changes as suggested. Now I have this:
type FileReader interface {
ReadFile(file string) error
}
func ReadDir(dir string, pages []*FileReader) (err error) {
filesInfo, err := ioutil.ReadDir(dir)
if err != nil {
return
}
for i, fileInfo := range filesInfo {
if isYamlFile(fileInfo) {
(*pages[i]).ReadFile(fileInfo.Name())
}
}
return
}
However, I still get a similar compiler error:
src/main.go:19: cannot use pages (type []*Page) as type []*yamlcms.FileReader in argument to yamlcms.ReadDir
Even though main.Page should be a FileReader because it embeds yamlcms.Page.

Answer 1

EDIT: I forgot that slices of interfaces don't work like that. You'd need to allocate a new slice, convert all pages to FileReaders, call the function, and convert them back.
Another possible solution is refactoring yamlcms.ReadDir to return the contents of the files, so that they could be unmarshaled later:
// In yamlcms.
func ReadYAMLFilesInDir(dir string) ([][]byte, error) { ... }
// In client code.
files := yamlcms.ReadYAMLFilesInDir("dir")
for i := range pages {
if err := yaml.Unmarshal(files[i], &pages[i]); err != nil { return err }
}
The original answer:
There are no such things as inheritance or casting in Go. Prefer composition and interfaces in your designs. In your case, you can redefine your yamlcms.ReadDir to accept an interface, FileReader.
type FileReader interface {
ReadFile(file string) error
}
Both yamlcms.Page and main.Page will implement this, as the latter embeds the former.