Ryan McCue 4:03 am on January 10, 2017  

API Chat Summary: January 9th (4.8 kickoff)

We’ve had an early kickoff meeting for the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. for 4.8 (Slack archive) to establish some of the new workflows and structure for the team heading into 4.8.

Development Process for 4.8

  • There are three big areas for the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. moving forward: usage in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., usage in apps, and general expansion
  • Focus for 4.8 core development will be on usage in core
  • Other areas will continue development in Feature Projects where they need to, but won’t be the focus of the core API team
  • Feature Projects for the API:
    • Two additional requirements:
      1. Project must have a reviewer, who needs to be a core committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component.
      2. Project must have a design doc with a few specifics
    • Exactly what is required in the design doc will be laid out in the future, will include detailed merging plan
    • These changes based on our own experiences being a feature project
  • Project Organisation (including feature projects and core projects)
    • Overview and tracking of features will use Trello (mainly for our own internal usage)
    • Projects will have their own teams with a point-person to organise
    • Projects can have their own meetings, and will report their progress in the main API meeting
    • Our first core project is the Multisite API, @jnylen0 has been volunteered for point-person 😉

4.8 Focus: Adminadmin (and super admin)

  • Attacking the problem from multiple fronts: lots of JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. work, backend/new endpoints also required
  • New endpoints
    • “Appearance” menu is largest area lacking API support
    • Will work with the Customiser team closely here, including work on Widgets and Menus
  • Frontend work
    • Press This is great candidate, and work is already underway in #38343
    • Large amount of work around List Tables required
    • Work here can start with Quick Edit and Quick Delete
    • These will act as smaller areas to help establish process, including dealing with backwards compatibility

Documentation and Support

As noted, we’re trying out some new things with API development for this cycle. Those may stick, or they may not, and we’ll be continuing to improve and refine the process as we go.