At WP Served we do a lot of custom projects where we connect WordPress with different databases, systems, apps, etc. We even build complex web applications using WordPress as an engine. This is possible because of Rest API which allows us, developers, to solve much bigger problems than just using WordPress just to build a website.
What is Rest API and why it’s so cool
WordPress Rest API is a universal way to communicate with any other website or online software, regardless of the programming language they were built with. It determines how web services communicate with each other and it was built into the core of WordPress since 2015.
You probably know WordPress these days is so much more than a blogging platform! It is a full-featured web and mobile application platform. Rest API is one of a few reasons why advanced WordPress developers are able to create powerful features built into a WordPress website or use WordPress as a foundation in complex projects.
Examples
Below you can see some examples of how WordPress Rest API can be utilized to build new features, to integrate different systems and apps:
- The New York Times has been using WP REST API to power their live coverage blogs. Their live coverage plugin uses REST API to provide communication between WordPress backend and custom made text editing software.
- Some time ago I have been attending WordCamp conference where all the information about the agenda was being displayed on the screens in the whole venue. It was a live feed created with WordPress and REST API.
- You can use WordPress as a backend for your native mobile application. A mobile application will simply pull data from your website using the REST API.
Examples above only scratch the surface of the REST API’s capabilities. We already used it in several projects both for websites and web-applications where it doesn’t look like we use WordPress at all, and it works just great.