What’s a REST API and why should I

care?

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

WordPress Developer from

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

What does REST mean?

“REpresentational State Transfer”

Ok, what does THAT mean?

Practically speaking, it’s a standard way for two computers to talk to each other. Basically, a language.

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

What does API mean?

“Application Programming Interface”

Ok, what does THAT mean?

Practically speaking, it’s the gadget on your web site that speaks the language that REST uses.

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

What does it look like?

WP Campus https://2016.wpcampus.org/wp-json/wp/v2/schedule

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

What can be done with it?

The same thing as any other web site.

● View content● Update content● Delete content● Post new content

It’s just done with code instead of the WordPress UI.

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

Ok, one more time, why do I care?

Scenario: Car dealership site full of cars

We can make:

● An employee mobile app where they can see the latest about every car, and make updates from the lot.

● A customer mobile app where people can shop for cars● Car data easily available to other sites like autotrader.com and

EVERY OTHER car site.

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

Scenario: A web site that collects registration info for an event

We can make:

● An app in any other language, on any other platform, that can import that data, process it, and update its status on the web

● Do you have a weird old CRM built in Access?● Do you use Salesforce?● Mailchimp? ● ANYTHING that also has an API?

Communication between your site and other APIs can be automated.

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

Plugin specific APIs

Many plugins have their own REST API.

● WooCommerce● Easy Digital Downloads

Others extend the WordPress REST API

● SearchWP

These enable mobile apps, status reporting kiosk screens, or any kind of data access

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

Why do you care?

Because the WordPress REST API immediately turns your web site into an application that can serve data to any kind of application or language.

Your data is instantly free of any constraints.

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia@topher1kenobe

THANKS FOR

LISTENING

What’s a REST API and why should I care?Topher DeRosia

http://topher1kenobe.comhttp://heropress.com

Follow me @topher1kenobe

@topher1kenobe