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WP REST API
intro / terms / logic / useage
tomhermans.com
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Hi, I’m Tom
You might know me of …
Sony
Telenet
freelance WP development
get in touch : tomhermans.com
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Question Time
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term : API : Application Program Interface
agreed set of standardized ways
that a particular piece of software can be used;
the rules defined for its interaction with the wider world,
which govern how other pieces of software can talk to a
program
and how it will respond.
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term : JSON: JavaScript Object Notation
a way to store information in an organized, easy-to-access manner.
In a nutshell, it gives us a human-readable collection of data that we can access in
a really logical manner.
var jason = {
"age" : "24",
"gender" : "male"
};
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term : SPA : Single Page Application
is a web application or web site that fits on a single web page with the goal of
providing a more fluent user experience
The page does not reload at any point in the process.
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WP REST API : A bit of history
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WP API’s
XML-RPC & friends (atom..)
XML remote procedure call
mobile app
admin-ajax
lightweight routing layer
responds w/ JSON
more dev tool - see previous presentation
RSS
open standard syndication format
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RESTful API’s
Twitter
Facebook
WordPress.com
Stripe
.. many more
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What is REST ?
REST = representational state transfer
RESTful systems :
● communicate via HTTP
● same HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.)
like web browsers use
● to retrieve web pages and to send data to remote servers.
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REST Examples
Pretty much everyone who claims to have a REST API, in fact, does not.
Exception:
WWW - the World Wide Web
https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm
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How is WWW restful ?
Does your browser (the client)
know whether it’s displaying a banking website or a casual game?
Nope.
It just utilizes standard media types (HTML, CSS, JS .. )
The web doesn’t know whether it is serving you a website for a bank or a game.
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How does a HTTP request look like ?
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so, REST uses HTTP to CRUD
HTTP to CREATE data : POST
HTTP to READ data : GET
HTTP to UPDATE data : PUT (with an existing URI)
HTTP to DELETE data : DELETE
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Example sites
https://feelingrestful.com/
http://quotesondesign.com/
http://www.michaelbromley.co.uk/
http://qz.com
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Calypso / WordPress.com
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What is Calypso
Calypso = frontend admin for WP, written in JS with REST API
to be used to read/write for WP.com and jetpack sites
1. better user experience
- faster & being able to manage multiple sites
2. better dev experience
- better tooling + how they deal with JS
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Calypso how
How does Calypso work ?
> in a nutshell:
Connects to WP.com via node.js,
loads rest of JS, loaded async
controllers render React components
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Why is Calypso interesting ?
interesting if you want to build a SPA based on WP REST API
Do You:
1. have a lot of user interaction ?
2. need quick transitions between interactions ?
3. have multiple front ends ? web/mobile/desktop, powered by same data
different mindset, user controls page content with interactions
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DEMO time
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So ...
this is a start, obviously
Different paradigm,
different mindset,
different useage,
different tooling
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Can I already use it ?
Yes, but ..
think about
SEO,
server-side rendering,
JS dependencies, etc ..
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Question Time
More questions ?
@tomhermans
tomhermans.com/contact