REST APIs for Absolute Beginners How to make a basic endpoint, use it on the frontend, and convert existing code

What are my options?

Admin AJAX? add_action("wp_ajax_fruit", "fruit"); add_action("wp_ajax_nopriv_fruit", "fruit"); function fruit() { echo "bananas"; exit; } jQuery.ajax({ type : "get", url : "https://example.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php", data : { action: "fruit" }, success: function(response) { // } });

A file in your theme/plugin you call?

REST API Endpoints

Where is the API? /wp-json

The rest API is a is a set of pages that return JSON instead of HTML that have no state

REST actions GET - viewing POST - adding/updating DELETE - deleting

Adding an Endpoint add_action( 'rest_api_init', function () { register_rest_route( 'tomjn/v1', '/test/', array( 'methods' => 'GET', 'callback' => 'tomjn_rest_test' ) ); } ); function tomjn_rest_test() { return "moomins"; }

/wp-json/tomjn/v1/test

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Viewing an endpoint jQuery.get( "https://tomjn.com/wp-json/tom/v1/test", function ( data ) { console.log( data ); } );

How Do I Accept Parameters? function tomjn_rest_test( \WP_REST_Request $request ) { return "moomins ".$request["val"]; } /wp-json/tomjn/v1/test?val=1 "moomins 1"

Converting AJAX calls ● Register an endpoint ● Use the function WP Admin AJAX uses ● Return what you want instead of printing it ● Use the request parameter instead of $_GET $_POST etc ● Update the URLs in your javascript

A Useful Helper wp_enqueue_script( 'wp-api' );

Creating Content $.ajax( { url: wpApiSettings.root + 'wp/v2/posts', method: 'POST', beforeSend: function ( xhr ) { xhr.setRequestHeader( 'X-WP-Nonce', wpApiSettings.nonce ); }, data:{ 'title' : 'Hello Moon', 'content': 'Test post' } } ).done( function ( response ) { console.log( response ); } );

Updating Content $.ajax( { url: wpApiSettings.root + 'wp/v2/posts/1', method: 'POST', beforeSend: function ( xhr ) { xhr.setRequestHeader( 'X-WP-Nonce', wpApiSettings.nonce ); }, data:{ 'title' : 'Updated Moon', 'content': 'even better post' } } ).done( function ( response ) { console.log( response ); } );

Deleting Content $.ajax( { url: wpApiSettings.root + 'wp/v2/posts/1', method: 'DELETE', beforeSend: function ( xhr ) { xhr.setRequestHeader( 'X-WP-Nonce', wpApiSettings.nonce ); } } ).done( function ( response ) { console.log( response ); } );

Built in Endpoints Posts /wp/v2/posts Post Revisions /wp/v2/revisions Categories /wp/v2/categories Tags /wp/v2/tags Pages /wp/v2/pages Comments /wp/v2/comments Taxonomies /wp/v2/taxonomies Media /wp/v2/media Users /wp/v2/users Post Types /wp/v2/types Post Statuses /wp/v2/statuses Settings /wp/v2/settings

Useful Things

Adding REST support to CPT 'show_in_rest' => true,

WP.org REST API Handbook https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api

Rest API Console

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Questions? Tom J Nowell @tarendai https://tomjn.com Wordpress.com VIP* * we’re hiring