Human Made co-founder Joe Hoyle is crowdsourcing stats on the REST API in an effort to bring more awareness and to better understand the different developers and sites leveraging it.
“A somewhat unknown amount of developers and sites use the REST API, but are often not vocal about it,” Hoyle told Torque. “We often hear a lot about what plugins and products make use of the REST API, but not so much about what production sites are running it.”
The crowdsourcing effort comes right before the REST API meeting happening later today. These stats will provide a better understanding of the “extent and in which contexts the API is currently being used.” This will help the REST API team make more informed decisions on when and how the REST API will be added to core.
“These are large decisions that should be taken with as much information as we can muster,” Hoyle said.
Hoyle emphasized the importance of understanding the people who use the REST API in production. If very few people are actually using the feature plugin, it may be difficult to say it should ship to 25 percent of the web, he said.
“…I don’t want to be responsible for getting this wrong by merging too early with design decisions that have not been tested against real-world use cases,” Hoyle said.
Regardless of when and how the REST API is merged in core, the amount of enthusiasm building around it is undeniable. Hoyle suggests that as a community we need more to show for the REST API than enthusiasm.
“We all benefit from knowing who and where the REST API is in use, not only to inform the WordPress team but also to serve as a resource for potential users to see where the API is in use,” Hoyle said.
These stats will be useful to everyone. Hoyle hopes that this document can grow into something more evergreen that could potentially be showcased on WordPress.org.
How are you leveraging the REST API in production? Add it to Hoyle’s document to help create a valuable resource for the REST API team and the community.
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