actix-web From Zero

Learn one of the fastest Rust web frameworks: the App and HttpServer, routing and extractors, responders, shared state with web::Data, middleware, a full REST API with the ResponseError trait, and testing and production. Mature, batteries-included, and a perennial benchmark leader.

1. What actix-web Is & Your First Server actix-web runs your routes across worker threads: an App holds them, an HttpServer runs copies of it, and a handler is an async fn returning a Responder. Install it, write a first server, run it.
2. Routing & Extractors How actix-web matches a request to a handler: routes as method + path, builder vs attribute-macro registration, web::scope for versioning, and the Path/Query/Json extractors that turn a request into typed handler arguments.
3. Responders How handlers turn into HTTP responses: the Responder trait, the HttpResponse builder for status control, web::Json shorthand, the different-branches type trap, and when to reach for impl Responder.
4. Shared State with web::Data How handlers share a database pool or in-memory store via web::Data — and the per-worker closure trap that hands each worker its own copy unless you build state once and clone it in.
5. Middleware Middleware wraps your service. Attach it with .wrap(), reach for built-ins like Logger and Compress, master the wrap-order rule, and write your own with from_fn.
6. A REST API with Error Handling Build full CRUD over the shared web::Data store, then meet actix's idiomatic error story — the ResponseError trait — so every handler returns Result and varies status without juggling response types.
7. Testing & Production Test an actix-web app in memory with actix_web::test (no ports), share routes between main and tests via .configure(), then ship it with workers, built-in graceful shutdown, and env config.
8. Where to Go Next You can build, test, and ship a real actix-web API. Now the honest map: actix-web vs axum/Rocket, the data layer (sqlx/SeaORM/Diesel), the Tokio roots, and what to build.