Centralizing News through WordPress REST API

Todd McKee, MEd University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)

Todd McKee, MEd @toddmckee

Senior Web Developer Office of Communications and Marketing

Wordpress at UAMS

• UAMSHealth.com (Hospital & News) • 9000+ posts & pages

• uamsonline.com & uamsonlinedev.com (UAMS multisites) • 150 sites with ~400 users

• uamsonlinetwo.com & uamsdev.com (Institutes) • 7 sites with 1500+ posts

• sites.uams.edu & go.uams.edu (One-offs & Apps) • ~30 sites with ~200 users

• 25+ of single installs (One-offs & special)

Before

College of Medicine

Research

Cancer Institute

Same (-ish) Story. Posted 3 times or more

✂+📋

✂+📋

✂+📋

Content Syndication

• https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/how-to-manage-the-content-in-your-wordpress-multisite-media-empire/

• https://vip.wordpress.com/plugins/syndication/

Now

College of Medicine

Same Story. Not all sites are available

Cancer Institute

Research

☑

☑

Push

🚫

LEVEL UP: Merging All The Things

https://online.wpcampus.org/schedule/level-up-centralized-news-and-wordpress/

Now

Cancer Institute

College of Medicine

Research

☑

☑

Push

🚫

Soon

Cancer Institute

College of Medicine

ResearchOne Story. Multiple sites

Pull

☁

(Already Started)

• https://wpengine.com/resources/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-wordpress-rest-api/

• https://torquemag.io/2017/05/ways-start-using-wp-rest-api/

• https://jeremyfelt.com/2016/02/17/using-wp-rest-api-washington-state-university/

• https://github.com/washingtonstateuniversity/WSUWP-Content-Syndicate

WHAT IS AN API?

Definition: Application Program Interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools

for building software applications.

YOU LOST ME AT “DEFINITION”

An API lets you access, or create data. WordPress Terms: The REST API lets you access, or

create, WordPress content.

https://www.slideshare.net/royssivan/wpcampus-online-the-case-for-the-wordpress-rest-api

HOW DO YOU API?

Leveraging the API isn’t that difficult once you get the hang of JSON (JavaScript Object

Notation) Use JavaScript or PHP

RESTful APIRepresentational state transfer (REST) or RESTful web services is an API that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data (Universal connector for data).

JSON

WP Rest API 101

• WordPress 4.7+

• v2.wp-api.org

• CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete)

• /wp-json/wp/v2/

https://www.slideshare.net/AndrewDixon5/an-absolute-beginners-guide-to-the-wordpress-rest-api

GET

• /wp-json/wp/v2/posts

• Example

Filter

• Add parameters to filter

• Think WP-Query

• GET

• /wp-json/wp/v2/posts?search=awesome

• /wp-json/wp/v2/posts?page=1&per_page=2

• Example

Single Article

• GET /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/{POST-ID}

• Example

What else can we access?

• Pages

• Media

• Custom Post Types

• Taxonomies

• Everything…

Examples

Issues

• Authentication

• Basic, JavaScript, & Oauth

• Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

• Extending Support For Custom Content Types

What are we doing?

• News on www.uams.edu

• Image on top of www.uams.edu

• Alert system (WP API v1)

• People / Physician directory (coming soon)

Thank you.

Questions?

Resources

• github.com/UAMS-Web

• github.com/UAMS-Web/UAMSWP-Content-Syndication

• github.com/washingtonstateuniversity

• wpcampus.org