A Conversation About the WordPress JSON REST API

HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik [email protected]

A Conversation About the WordPress

JSON REST APINick Batik

@nick_batik

http://handsonwp.com/

mailto:[email protected]



PresenterNick Batik

Started in web development in 1994 and have been a WordPress consultant, and web developer since 2007. A WordPress evangelist, I’ve served as Austin WordPress Meetup co-organizer since 2010. With my partner, co-founded Pleiades Publishing Services in 1992 and Hands-On WordPress Training in 2010.

Follow me @nick_batik / @WPATX

Contact me at: handsonwp.com





WordPress JSON REST API

(and How It Could Change

WordPress Forever)





What We Will Cover

• Why Change?• From What? To What?• What is REST?• What does that mean to me?





Why Change?





Matt Mullenweg talked about Disruptive

Technology and WordPress





Disruptive Technology

a product or service that takes root initially at the

bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up

market, eventually displacing established competitors.





Innovate To What?Innovate From

What?





Popular and polarizing technologies

Likes vs. Dislikes of 25 most mentioned technologies

.5 means it is disliked as often as liked

Source: Stack Overflow 2015 Developer Survey





Most Dreaded Technology

• Salesforce - 73.2%• Visual Basic - 72.0%• WordPress - 68.2%Source: Stack Overflow 2015 Developer Survey





Most popular programming languages

• Javascript - 54.4%• PHP - 29.7%Source: Stack Overflow 2015 Developer Survey





Compensation

• PHP - $77,322• Javascript - $90,259• Node.js - $96,534Source: Stack Overflow 2015 Developer Survey





Top Tools For Student Programmers

(Devpost survey of student hack-athons)

1. HTML/CSS

2. JavascriptSource: http://studenthackers.devpost.com/




http://studenthackers.devpost.com/


Top Tools For Student Programmers

JavaScript Is Eating The World - Kevin Lacker, co-founder and chief technology officer of Parse. • Javascript on the browser• Javascript on the server ( Node.JS )• Javascript on the App ( ReactJS / React

Native )Source: http://arc.applause.com/2015/11/06/javascript-is-eating-the-world/





Summary

• Javascript is gaining popularity• PHP is loosing popularity





This is “Evolutionary”

Innovation.

Where is the “Disruptive” Innovation?





REST





What is REST?





The web is built on an architectural style

called RESTRoy Fielding





Every Database Management System in

the world performs some variation of 4 basic

functions summarized as CRUD





Those same functions are baked

into the HTTP Protocol - GET, PUT,

POST, & DELETE





The Internet is the worlds largest single

DBMS.It just hasn’t been fully implemented.





Enter WordPress REST API

It implements the missing DBMS functions for the rest of the web.





What Does This Mean to Me?





WordPress becomes a fully-featured application

platform.By providing an agreed, standardized programmatic interface between WordPress and the outside world, the software opens itself up to every other application and development environment on earth.





Cutting the Cord with PHP

The REST API gives every language instant access to the full range of WordPress’ native functionality.





Custom Dashboards

The REST API separates the dashboard from the WordPress mechanics, allowing a custom theme to be created for the authenticated side of WordPress as well.

This means you can create custom dashboards for targeted niches.





Custom Dashboards





Custom Dashboards





Custom Dashboards

It also means you can create dashboards that look like Ghost, Joomla, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, or whatever.





Front-End Editors

When any web page could potentially be a “dashboard” then any web page could also be an editor. We are seeing a rapid growth in this area, with examples such as:

• Frontkit• medium.js• Dante• medium-editor• grande.js• ZenPen• Pen





Winner • Javascript

programmers• App developers• Plugin developers• MySQL database

programmers

Losers • PHP programmers

Undecided • Dashboard

customizers• Theme developers





Watch the Austin WordPress Meetup video




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi-ORkHL1Vw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi-ORkHL1Vw&feature=youtu.be