(Not) Just Another WP REST API Talk

What are REST APIs? History on the WP REST API, and some usage ideas & examples.

Transcript

1. KRISTARELLA.blog
   WP REST API
   (NOT) JUST ANOTHER … TALK
   

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2. KRISTARELLA.blog
   @KRISTARELLA

   HAPPINESS ENGINEER: WP.COM
   KRISTEN SYMONDS
   

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3. KRISTARELLA.blog
   (NOT) JUST ANOTHER WP REST API TALK
   OVERVIEW
   - What is a REST API?
   - What is the WP REST API?
   - A bit of history
   - Who is using it?
   - How to use it
   - What you can do with it
   - suggestions
   - examples
   

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4. KRISTARELLA.blog
   REST API?
   WHAT IS A…
   

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5. KRISTARELLA.blog
   WHAT IS A REST API?
   DEFINITIONS
   - Application Programming Interface
   - method for an application to talk to another app/service/language
   - REpresentational State Transfer
   - enables access & manipulation of a textual representation of a web-based
   resource
   - coined by Roy Fielding in his 2000 dissertation
   

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6. KRISTARELLA.blog
   WHAT IS A REST API?
   CONSTRAINTS
   1. Stateless

   Each request is independent of each other, and all information to complete the task
   needs to be included in one go
   2. Cacheable
   3. Uniform interface

   URI identifies the resource → method performs operation on resource → operation
   is implicit in the URL

   e.g.,
   http://mybadass.blog/delete/product/coffee
   resource
   method
   

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7. KRISTARELLA.blog
   WHAT IS A REST API?
   CONSTRAINTS
   4. Client-server

   A separation of client & server where the server doesn’t care about the state of the server
   and the client doesn’t need to store information
   5. Layered

   Doesn’t matter if the server is primary, or an intermediary
   6. Response is in a hypermedia format (optional)
   - XML is a hypermedia format because it conveys meaning within the markup
   - JSON is sometimes
   - API author needs to structure output in a RESTful way
   

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8. KRISTARELLA.blog
   WP REST API?
   WHAT IS THE…
   

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9. KRISTARELLA.blog
   IMMEDIATELY TURNS YOUR WEB SITE
   INTO AN APPLICATION THAT CAN SERVE
   DATA TO ANY KIND OF APPLICATION OR
   LANGUAGE
   Topher Derosia
   WHAT IS THE WP REST API?
   

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10. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WHAT IS THE WP REST API?
    2009
    MOMA NY uses WP back-end, Ruby front-end

    resulting in JSON API plugin
    Jan 2013
    first code for WP REST API

    by Ryan McCue on Github
    Google SoC
    2014
    v1 stable: robust, but not ready for core

    (no internal API, difficult to extend)
    Feb 2015
    started v2: Ryan McCue, Rachel Baker,

    Joe Hoyle, Daniel Bachhuber
    schemas
    posts, pages, media,

    terms, users
    controller, server
    Not to scale!
    Apr 2015
    v2b1
    May 2015
    speed increase, custom

    response fields, pagination
    v2b2
    Oct 2015
    infrastructure merged into core!
    Jun 2013 Dec 2016
    WP 4.7

    API merged into core!
    

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11. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WHO IS USING IT?
    WP REST API
    

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12. KRISTARELLA.blog
    - SearchWP
    - Tabulate
    - WooCommerce
    - EDD (not really)
    - ACF (with plugin)
    
    WHO IS USING IT?
    PLUGINS
    

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13. KRISTARELLA.blog
    SITES
    WHO IS USING IT?
    

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14. KRISTARELLA.blog
    ADMIN
    WHO IS USING IT?
    

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15. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WHO IS USING IT?
    MOBILE
    - Official Mobile App
    - https://apps.wordpress.com/mobile/
    - Vienna
    - https://github.com/joehoyle/vienna
    

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16. KRISTARELLA.blog
    HOW TO USE IT
    WP REST API
    

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17. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WP-API.ORG
    DEVELOPER.WORDPRESS.ORG/REST-API
    

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18. KRISTARELLA.blog
    HOW TO USE IT
    USING THE API
    1. Find the URL you need
    - discovery URL is revealed in the head of your site
    2. Construct the URL with resource and method
    3. JSON reponse is returned
    4. Parse information
    
    GET http://kristarella.blog/wp-json/wp/v2/posts
    

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19. KRISTARELLA.blog
    HOW TO USE IT
    EXAMPLE RESPONSE
    [{
    “id" 4357,
    “date":"2015-03-02T22:27:02",
    “date_gmt":"2015-03-02T11:27:02",
    “guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kristarella.com\/?p=4357"},
    “modified":"2015-03-03T10:09:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T
    23:09:40",
    “slug":"seo-for-beginners",
    “type":"post",
    “link":"http:\/\/kristarella.blog\/2015\/03\/seo-for-
    beginners\/",
    "title":{"rendered":"SEO for beginners"},
    http://kristarella.blog/wp-json/wp/v2/posts?search=css
    

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20. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT
    IDEAS FOR YOU
    - On your site
    - suggest search terms for your
    visitors
    - pagination
    - archives/portfolio filter
    - replace admin-ajax.php tasks

    - Search a site from anywhere
    - streamline workflows
    - Quick post
    - Parse information into other APIs in
    any language
    - integrate signups with Salesforce,
    Meetup, Mailchimp
    - Display real-time sales data
    

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21. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT
    CUSTOM FRONTEND APP
    $http

    .get("http://ilovetea.mystagingwebsite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts?
    per_page=100&orderby=title")

    .success(function(data) {
    $scope.drinks = data;
    });
    

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22. KRISTARELLA.blog
    

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23. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT
    SEARCH FROM ANYWHERE
    - Build your own search engine using Alfred
    workflows
    require './workflow.php';

    search( "{query}" );
    

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24. KRISTARELLA.blog
    WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT: SEARCH FROM ANYWHERE
    function search_v2( $search ) {
    $num = 30; $fields = ‘URL,title'; $order = ‘asc'; $orderby = 'title';
    $url = 'https://public-api.wordpress.com/wp/v2/sites/en.support.wordpress.com/pages/?order='.
    $order.'&orderby='.$orderby.'&per_page='.$num.'&search='.urlencode( $search );
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, false );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10 );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
    $body = curl_exec( $ch );
    $err = curl_errno( $ch );
    $data = json_decode( $body, true );
    if( !empty( $data ) ) {
    echo '';
    while (list($key, $post) = each( $data ) ) {
    echo ''.$post['title']['rendered'].'
    '.$post['link'].'
    ';
    }
    echo "";
    }
    }
    

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25. KRISTARELLA.blog
    CREDITS
    - Images
    - https://www.flickr.com/photos/
    swamibu/6818776091
    - https://www.flickr.com/photos/
    peter-trimming/15030180387
    

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26. QUESTIONS?
    THANK YOU!
    KRISTARELLA.blog
    

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