As many of you are aware, I was accepted into Google’s Summer of Code program this year to work on a JSON REST API for WordPress. WordPress already has internal APIs for manipulating data via the admin-ajax.php handler in addition to the XML-RPC API. However, XML can be a huge pain to both safely create and parse, and the existing admin API is locked down to authenticated users and is also tailored to the admin interface. The goal of this project is to create a general data API that speaks the common language of the web and uses easily parsable data.

I’d now like to introduce the official repository and issue tracker. There’s also the SVN repository which is kept in sync.

For the next few months, my schedule will be busy implementing the API. Each week from now through the final submission has an individual plan, presented below.

May 27: Acceptance of Project, ensure up-to-speed on existing code

June 3: Work on design documents (response types/collections) and ensure agreement with mentors and interested parties (#264)

June 10: Complete core post type serialisation/deserialisation (basic reading/writing of raw data complete) (#265)

June 17: Work on collection pagination and metadata infrastructure (the full collection of posts can now be accessed and is correctly paginated, allowing for browsing via the API) (#266)

June 24: Creation of main collection views (main post archive, per date, search) (#267)

July 1: Further work on indexes and browsability (#268)

July 8: Create (independent) REST API unit tests for all endpoints covered so far (#269)

July 15: Creation of a Backbone.js example client for testing (#270)

July 22: Spare week to act as a buffer, since some tasks may take longer than expected

July 29: Midterm evaluation!

August 5: Creation/porting of existing generic post type API with page-specific data (#271)

August 12: Creation of attachment-related API (uploading and management) (#272)

August 19: Creation of revision API, and extending the post API to expose revisions (#273, #274)

August 26: Creation of term and taxonomy API (#275)

September 2: Finalisation of term and taxonomy API, and updating of test clients (#276)

September 9: Final testing with example clients (especially with various proxies and in live environments) and security review (#277)

September 15: Spare week for buffer

September 22: Final checking for bugs and preparation for final submission

At the end of each week throughout development, I’ll post a weekly update and tag a new release version, in a manner similar to the release process of MP6. The first release of the API will be posted shortly.

For those looking to keep track of development, I’ll be posting about the API here, which you can follow via the feed. A GSoC P2 is on its way and will be the official place to post comments and feedback (I’ll be crossposting back to here once that’s up). In the mean time, I’ll be posting on this blog and accepting comments here, which is a great way to ask questions and post feedback.