{"id":23185,"date":"2016-12-06T19:36:31","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T19:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/?post_type=rest-api-handbook&p=23185"},"modified":"2024-01-16T20:30:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T20:30:16","slug":"glossary","status":"publish","type":"rest-api-handbook","link":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/rest-api\/glossary\/","title":{"rendered":"Glossary"},"content":{"rendered":"

New to REST APIs? Get up to speed with phrases used throughout our documentation.<\/p>\n

Controller<\/h2>\n

Model-View-Controller<\/a> is a standard pattern in software development. If you aren’t already familiar with it, you should do a bit of reading to get up to speed.<\/p>\n

Within WP-API, we’ve adopted the controller concept to have a standard pattern for the classes representing our resource endpoints. All resource endpoints extend WP_REST_Controller<\/code> to ensure they implement common methods.<\/p>\n

HEAD, GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE Requests<\/h2>\n

These “HTTP verbs” represent the type<\/em> of action a HTTP client might perform against a resource. For instance, GET<\/code> requests are used to fetch a Post’s data, whereas DELETE<\/code> requests are used to delete a Post. They’re collectively called “HTTP verbs” because they’re standardized across the web.<\/p>\n

If you’re familiar with WordPress functions, a GET<\/code> request is the equivalent of wp_remote_get()<\/code>, and a POST<\/code> request is the same as wp_remote_post()<\/code>.<\/p>\n

HTTP Client<\/h2>\n

The phrase “HTTP Client” refers to the tool you use to interact with WP-API. You might use Postman<\/a> (Chrome) or REST Easy<\/a> (Firefox) to test requests in your browser, or httpie<\/a> to test requests at the commandline.<\/p>\n

WordPress itself provides a HTTP Client in the WP_HTTP<\/code> class<\/a> and related functions (e.g. wp_remote_get()<\/code>). This can be used to access one WordPress site from another.<\/p>\n

Resource<\/h2>\n

A “Resource” is a discrete entity<\/em> within WordPress. You may know these resources already as Posts, Pages, Comments, Users, Terms, and so on. WP-API permits HTTP clients to perform CRUD operations against resources (CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete).<\/p>\n

Pragmatically, here’s how you’d typically interact with WP-API resources:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • GET \/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts<\/code> to get a collection of Posts. This is roughly equivalent to using WP_Query<\/code>.<\/li>\n
  • GET \/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123<\/code> to get a single Post with ID 123. This is roughly equivalent to using get_post()<\/code>.<\/li>\n
  • POST \/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts<\/code> to create a new Post. This is roughly equivalent to using wp_insert_post()<\/code>.<\/li>\n
  • DELETE \/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123<\/code> to delete Post with ID 123. This is roughly equivalent to wp_delete_post()<\/code>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Routes \/ Endpoints<\/h2>\n

    Endpoints are functions available through the API. This can be things like retrieving the API index, updating a post, or deleting a comment. Endpoints perform a specific function, taking some number of parameters and return data to the client.<\/p>\n

    A route is the “name” you use to access endpoints, used in the URL. A route can have multiple endpoints associated with it, and which is used depends on the HTTP verb.<\/p>\n

    For example, with the URL `http:\/\/example.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123`:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • The “route” is wp\/v2\/posts\/123<\/code> – The route doesn’t include wp-json<\/code> because wp-json<\/code> is the base path for the API itself.<\/li>\n
    • This route has 3 endpoints:\n
        \n
      • GET<\/code> triggers a get_item<\/code> method, returning the post data to the client.<\/li>\n
      • PUT<\/code> triggers an update_item<\/code> method, taking the data to update, and returning the updated post data.<\/li>\n
      • DELETE<\/code> triggers a delete_item<\/code> method, returning the now-deleted post data to the client.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Note:<\/strong> On sites without pretty permalinks, the route is instead added to the URL as the rest_route<\/code> parameter. For the above example, the full URL would then be `http:\/\/example.com\/?rest_route=wp\/v2\/posts\/123`<\/p>\n

        Schema<\/h2>\n

        A “schema” is a representation of the format for WP-API’s response data. For instance, the Post schema communicates that a request to get a Post will return id<\/code>, title<\/code>, content<\/code>, author<\/code>, and other fields. Our schemas also indicate the type each field is, provide a human-readable description, and show which contexts the field will be returned in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5896197,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23185","rest-api-handbook","type-rest-api-handbook","status-publish","hentry","type-handbook"],"revision_note":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rest-api-handbook\/23185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rest-api-handbook"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rest-api-handbook"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5896197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rest-api-handbook\/23185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147317,"href":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rest-api-handbook\/23185\/revisions\/147317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer.wordpress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}