One of the most important questions to ask yourself when considering a new business venture is, “What problem does this solve?†Many of the most successful businesses resolve issues for users, or at least make some kind of process easier. In a recent post, WordPress developer and Core contributor Matt Geri wonders just who is really benefitting from the WordPress REST API.
Given the recent discussion about the pros and cons of building out a full API spec with comprehensive WordPress support versus releasing the API iteratively, Geri’s stance recently swung from the latter to the former. His reasoning being that it is such a large and important offering that it must be done right, which depends on who will ultimately be using it.
While Geri believes that end users (i.e. bloggers) will eventually benefit from the API in the long run, the release will initially serve two types of stakeholder. The first of these is developers, who are constantly trying to adopt new development frameworks to build better products. The second stakeholder is business, who may begin to see WordPress as offering more than just blogging and CMS, eventually implementing it in novel ways as its use cases multiply.
The API could see businesses reach potential new customers to increase profitability by using the API to integrate with existing applications. This will allow existing content to be imported to WordPress, as well as enable teams to put out a proof of concept application with a complete REST API, among others. So, since he believes that business should be the target benefactor, the author feels that the API should be a finished product that can be adopted and implemented immediately.
Geri believes that, if they are making a mistake and business is not the REST API’s intended audience, then lessons will be learned and the approach adapted to get things moving forward again. Either way, he encourages open and respectful discussion around the topic and continued support for the team doing the actual work.
Article source: http://www.programmableweb.com/news/who-wordpress-rest-api-really-serving/elsewhere-web/2016/04/26