This was my talk at Detroit Startup Week 2017 about the WordPress REST API. The goal was to build a foundation for REST APIs then how to use WordPress' core REST API to build upon.

1. WordPress REST API:
Backend for apps
Anthony Montalbano • 05.23.2017

2. Anthony Montalbano
Stuff I did and do
● Cofounded AMBR Detroit
● WordPress dev for 10+
years
● Hosted 3 WordCamps in
Detroit
Stuff to contact me
● @italianst4
● anthony@ambrdetroit.com

3. Overview
REST API 101
Core WordPress REST API
Interacting with the API
Extending the API

4. What is an API?

9. Some APIs

10. https://www.programmableweb.com/category/all/apis

11. What is RESTful?

12. Resource Based
● The URI endpoints are
resources (nouns)
Stateless
● A request is independent
and self-contained
REpresentational State Transfer
HTTP Methods
● Standardize methods are
used for data manipulation
Representation
● Often JSON or XML based
objects

13. A HTTP Request

14. Resource Based
Pet (resource)
/pet
/pet/1
Store (resource)
/store
/store/1
Customer (resource)
/customer
/customer/1

15. Pet (resource)
/pet - get a collection of pets
/pet - create a new pet
/pet/1 - get a pet by ID 1
/pet/1 - update the pet with ID 1’s properties
/pet/1 - delete the pet with ID 1
HTTP Methods
GET
POST
GET
PUT
DELETE

16. Every HTTP request has headers which
authenticate the request and how the request
should respond.
Stateless

17. A request and response contains a representation
of a resource, often in JSON format.
Representation

18. Core WordPress API

19. Available since WordPress 4.4

22. Posts in category 7
Get post with ID 57

23. Update post 57

24. We must provide authentication
Core WordPress REST API only provides authentication, not
authorization (but there’s plugins for that!)

25. We must provide authentication

26. Since WordPress REST API uses cookie based authentication, you
have to spoof a cookie with Postman.
We must provide authentication

27. Since WordPress REST API uses cookie based authentication, you
have to spoof a cookie with Postman.
Postman Pro Tip

28. Since WordPress REST API uses cookie based authentication, you
have to spoof a cookie with Postman.
Postman Pro Tip

29. https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/reference/posts/

30. https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/reference/

31. Interacting with the API

32. jQuery Example

33. Models
Use models to interact and update resources
Collections
Use collections to get a collection of models
Backbone.js Client Library
This client library automatically handles authentication for you! FTW!

34. Posts in category 7
Get post with ID 57

35. Update post 57

36. Available Models and Collections

37. Extending the API

38. Adding a Custom Post Type to
the REST API

39. Automatically added to the
client-side javascript library

40. Customizing the controller
https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/extending-the-rest-api/controller-classes/
While this gives you more flexibility, it doesn’t automatically
integrate into the Backbone.js client library.

41. Perform action taking into
account HTTP method,
headers, and data
Route request based
on HTTP method
Authenticate user based
on HTTP headers
Return a JSON success
or error response
Validate request data
(if applicable)
How to develop an API endpoint

42. Adding custom endpoints

43. Adding custom endpoints

44. Check user permissions

45. Validate incoming data

46. Returning a response object

47. Putting it all together

48. Thank
you!
Questions?
I’m at:
@italianst4
ambrdetroit.com