Building a REST API with Actix in Rust: A Journey from Flask

Hello, fellow developers! Today, I want to share my experience with transitioning a Flask API project to Actix, a powerful asynchronous web framework for Rust. This journey was not only about changing the language but also about embracing Rust’s safety, performance, and concurrency features.

Modern API Development in Rust

Why Rust and Actix?

Before we dive into the code, let’s briefly discuss why I decided to make this switch. Rust’s memory safety guarantees and performance were compelling reasons, and Actix, with its asynchronous capabilities, seemed like the perfect fit for building a high-performance API.

Flask: A Starting Point

Here’s a snapshot of the Flask code that served as the foundation for our API:

from flask import Flask, jsonify, request

app = Flask(__name__)

tasks = [
    {'id': 1, 'title': 'Learn Flask', 'done': False},
    {'id': 2, 'title': 'Build a REST API', 'done': False}
]

@app.route('/tasks', methods=['GET'])
def get_tasks():
    return jsonify({'tasks': tasks})

@app.route('/tasks/<int:task_id>', methods=['GET'])
def get_task(task_id):
    task = next((task for task in tasks if task['id'] == task_id), None)
    if task is None:
        return jsonify({'error': 'Task not found'}), 404
    return jsonify({'task': task})…