WordPress, not just for bloggers

I love WordPress!

Unfortunately, in my everyday job as a software engineer, I don’t get to use it much.

However, with the availability of the WordPress REST API, there are more and more reasons to use it on “real” software projects.

The WordPress REST API, in very simple terms, is a way for apps and other websites to communicate with the powerful WordPress “engine”.

Pic’N’Mix WordPress

With the WordPress REST API you can use WordPress as an ‘Application Framework’. With an application framework you can ditch the heavy blog website concept and just use the great bits of WordPress that you need in your shiny, light-weight app or website. Give your new app or website a head start by harnessing dependable WordPress engine features like user authentication, content management, media management, extensions, SEO, translations etc.

A great use case for the WordPress REST API is to use it to supercharge Mobile App development. By Pic’n’Mixing the best parts of WordPress with your mobile development technology of choice, you can rapidly get an app up and running.

You can use WordPress as a dependable back end to your Mobile App. The mobile app stays light-weight, the only thing it needs to utilize WordPress is a Http client. If your app can make a web call, you’re all set.

But it’s not used in production apps, right?

There are some fantastic examples of apps, out in the wild, which use WordPress as a powerful back end. 3Advance were quick to recognize its utility and have created two apps already which use WordPress in the background:

Launch Alert: Meg Bitton Live iOS App gets 148 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews in just 12 hours!

Launch Alert: Apps Developed to Watch and Stream Portrait Masters

3Advance are notorious for quickly turning app ideas into reality. They found the WordPress community and REST API perfect for rapid application development.

Getting Started

To get started using WordPress as your next application framework is as simple as installing a normal self-hosted WordPress site or create a site on WordPress.com.

The REST API is enabled by default on self-hosted and WordPress.com sites.

Check it out for yourself; go to your favorite WordPress site and add “/wp-json/wp/v2/posts” to the web address to see a REST API call in action e.g.

http://www.angrybirds.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts

There are numerous examples on the internet of how you can start integrating the data returned from the REST API with your app. So instead of rehashing yet another example, here are some links below.

WordPress REST API Documentation: https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/

Used with a progressive web app: /wordpress-rest-api-part-2/

Used with React:

https://snipcart.com/blog/reactjs-wordpress-rest-api-example

Used with Vue.js

https://github.com/bstavroulakis/vue-wordpress-pwa