The use of application programming interfaces is common in modern websites. We use APIs such as Google Maps, Google Analytics, and Facebook to leverage the functionality of third-party services. Basically, APIs are created by developers to enable their features to other developers and platforms. Similarly, WordPress APIs let us use core features in a standard way to change and extend the functionality. We can also use these features to create our own APIs on top of WordPress and expose them to third-party services and platforms.
In this chapter, we are going to explore the available APIs, their functionality, and their use in development. We will be focusing more on three APIs that play a major role in custom development and yet have not been introduced in previous chapters. Developers often use WordPress shortcodes to provide pieces of reusable...