The WordPress REST API: A game changer for WordPress

The WordPress REST API is finally coming to Core in 4.7 (December 2016). This talk is a brief introduction on the concept of REST and the WP REST API. Additionally it's a showcase of the exciting new things you'll be able to build on top of the WordPress REST API.

Talk held at WordCamp Geneva 2016: https://2016.geneva.wordcamp.org

Additional links to the slides: https://goo.gl/N4RQ6N

Transcript

1. The WordPress REST API
   A game changer for WordPress @ #wcgva
   

   View Slide

2. 27.1% of The Web
   Now available in a RESTful way.
   

   View Slide

3. Silvan Hagen
   Co-Founder & WordPress
   Developer @wearerequired
   @neverything
   

   View Slide

4. What is A REST API?
   Trust me it’s easier than it sounds.
   

   View Slide

5. REpresentational State Transfer
   - Not any smarter yet? Well me neither ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
   - It’s about resources & a little bit about verbs
   - Uses HTTP methods in a specific way
   

   View Slide

6. REST: Let’s have a look
   GET /friends => Returns a Collection of friends
   GET /friends/joe => Returns a single friend
   GET /friends/new => Could be a form to add a friend
   

   View Slide

7. The HTTP methods in REST
   GET /friends => READ
   POST /friends => CREATE
   PUT /friends => UPDATE
   DELETE /friends => DELETE
   The famous CRUD
   

   View Slide

8. What about REST and WordPress?
   GET /wp-json/wp/v2/posts => Collection of Posts
   GET /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/ => Singular Post
   GET /wp-json/ => Allows discovering the API
   

   View Slide

9. REST & WordPRESS
   A little history lesson about the REST API.
   

   View Slide

10. How did we get here?
    - Started as GSoC project in 2013 by Ryan McCue
    - Infrastructure merged into WP 4.4 in 2015
    - Content Endpoints merged into WP 4.7 in 2016
    

    View Slide

11. What’s in it?
    There are a few more concepts in the WP REST API.
    

    View Slide

12. API Discovery via Response Header
    - In the response header of a request:
    Link: ;
    rel="https://api.w.org/"
    

    View Slide

13. API Discovery via Element
    - Added to the of your HTML:
    

    View Slide

14. API Feature Discovery - Authentication
    - The API will tell you how to authenticate
    

    View Slide

15. API Feature Discovery - Extensions
    - The API will tell you what namespaces exist:
    

    View Slide

16. API Feature Discovery - Combined
    

    View Slide

17. API Routes
    

    View Slide

18. API Routes
    

    View Slide

19. Linking using HAL
    - Uses HAL (Hypertext Application Language) to link related
    resources
    

    View Slide

20. Embed Related Resources
    - Add ?_embed to any API Request URI
    

    View Slide

21. Relax:
    The Crazy Part is over,
    let’s look at Examples
    

    View Slide

22. What Can You Build?
    A few examples and ideas.
    

    View Slide

23. In The WP-Admin
    https://wordpress.org/plugins/dashboard-directory-size/
    

    View Slide

24. View Slide

25. In Your Theme
    

    View Slide

26. Standalone Web Apps/Sites
    

    View Slide

27. DATA Heavy Things
    

    View Slide

28. APPS APPS APPS
    https://github.com/joehoyle/vienna
    

    View Slide

29. So are you ready for the WP
    REST API?
    

    View Slide

30. Already Built Something?
    

    View Slide

31. Some more Ideas
    - Mobile Apps
    - Other technologies can consume WP in a standardised way
    - New Admin Interfaces
    - Meta Boxes in the backend
    - All the lame admin-ajax.php stuff
    - WP_List_Tables
    - Customizer
    - Data heavy widgets
    - Comments (cool once comment type is merged)
    - Links & more: https://goo.gl/N4RQ6N
    

    View Slide

32. Thanks for Having Me!
    Questions?
    

    View Slide