Chapter 9. HTTP API
WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?
Learning what an HTTP request is
Performing HTTP requests with WordPress
Plugging your blog with third-party APIs
Reading server responses in various formats
Creating your own remote API
In the modern web, dubbed "2.0," Internet-based services communicate with each other: web-based readers gather data from blog feeds and Twitter accounts; personal web sites display Facebook badges or YouTube videos.
Your site should be no exception to this interoperability: In this chapter you learn how to make WordPress exchange information with remote services API and open it to a whole new level of perspective.
HTTP REQUESTS CRASH COURSE
This opening section explains what exactly an HTTP request is, what it can be used for, and why you will once again thank WordPress for lending a convenient hand and doing the cumbersome parts for you.
What Is an HTTP Request?
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the networking protocol that is no less than the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.
HTTP Request Concepts
Even if you cannot name or explain the following concepts yet, you have already experienced them in your everyday life online, using a web browser: HTTP is a request/response protocol in the client/server computing model.
Client/server — An application (the client) talks to another application (the server) that itself can respond to many clients at the same time. In the HTTP model, a client is, for example, a web browser, such as Firefox running ...
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