Learn The WordPress REST API With Me :)

Josh Pollock - February 15, 2016

Josh Pollock WordPress REST API CourseJosh Pollock WordPress REST API Course

The future of WordPress is the WordPress REST API. The future is here — it’s just not evenly distributed. The WordPress REST API is slowly maturing into a new and exciting tool, but it requires learning a whole lot of new skills and patterns.

I’ve had a blast writing and talking about what you can do with the REST API. In addition I’ve had the pleasure of presenting about the REST API at WordCamps all over the country. More importantly I’ve been putting it to use in my own work.

Today, I am releasing a four part video course about the REST API, with 17 videos in total. The premise of this course is that with the REST API, you can exceed expectations of what your users and clients expect from WordPress.

I genuinely believe that the WordPress REST API — once you master it — will allow you to deliver better more exciting, scalable and manageable results. It’s a new skill you need to learn, but it’s worth it. Don’t forget once you’re exceeding the standard of what people expect  that you start charging more.

Also, I made a 4 part video course about the WordPress REST API, that is available for sale today. Each of the four parts is a series of You can purchase the whole thing for $100, or each individual part of the course for $30 each.

You can learn more about the course, or download it on my shiny new “Learn with Josh” site. Expect to see more fun ways to learn WordPress development there, later this year.

BTW If you pre-ordered the course, check your email 🙂

What’s The Status Of The REST API?

Photo by:  Paula BorowskaPaula BorowskaAdding a REST API into a traditional web application, that was never intended to be API-first is no easy task. It’s going to take time and have ups and downs along the way. WordPress is all about progressive iteration and improvement.

The WordPress REST API is two parts. The first is infrastructure for creating RESTful APIs. The second is a set of default routes and endpoints for WordPress core functionality that uses that infrastructure. The infrastructure for the REST API was merged in to core WordPress 4.4. The second part was supposed to be merged into 4.5.

Unfortunately the second parts — the defaults — will not be included in WordPress 4.5. This does not mean that the REST API project is dead. The REST API team felt that everything besides the meta routes were ready to go, and proposed they be placed in a separate feature plugin, with the rest of the current feature plugin be merged. This proposal was not accepted.

The current issues that are considered blockers for the REST API are not huge. I would assume, but can not be certain, that the 4 routes — posts, users, comments and terms, with meta support for each — will be included in WordPress 4.6. In the meantime, the REST API plugin is still available for you to use.

The bright side, is that the plugin and the documentation are still being developed on Github, so it is easy for you to get involved with improving the plugin or the docs. If you’ve read my book, and watched the videos in my course, you are more than qualified to contribute to the docs.

Your Turn To Share

Photo by:  Maja PetricI first got excited about the REST API when I met Ryan and Rachel at WordCamp Milwaukee in 2014 and saw their presentation on the project. I went home both excited and worried. I knew this was the future of WordPress, if anyone could figure out how to use it.

So I wrote a bunch of articles for Torque, and gave some WordCamp talks, and wrote a free book, and now I’ve released this course. I love that I’ve been able to do all of that. If you’ve been following along and putting what you’ve learned to use, than you have something to share.
Free software is about the power of sharing what you’ve learned. The WordPress REST API is awesome. Some really awesome people put a lot of hard work into making it possible. Let’s pay it forward by sharing what we’ve learned about it.