WordPress is coming of age as an application platform. Plugins like WP-API 2.0 and the JSON REST API have arrived, opening up new opportunities for how websites and applications are constructed with WordPress as a CMS. More and more developers are discovering the benefits of “decoupled” development for websites and applications, where the front-end client (website, native mobile, desktop) is built as a separate system from the CMS itself.
This method of development has many applications:
- Coordinate front and back-end development in parallel via “the API Contract”.
- Use lean/elegant markup and best-of-breed front end development tools.
- Build rich interactive experiences leveraging modern JS frameworks like AngularJS or React.
- Support native mobile applications, the “internet of things”, and other web services.
- Provide content for applications in museum/gallery installations.
If you’re a developer who has been looking to try out some of these use-cases, or follow some of these new practices, there’s no better time than now to get started. This presentation will:
- Introduce you to decoupled development
- Showcase examples where WordPress serves as the CMS for websites, native iOS/Android applications, and museum touchscreens
- Walk through a simple example of creating a decoupled WordPress CMS that provides JSON to a variety of front-end applications
The presentation will draw from the following case studies:
- Haruki Murakami (http://www.harukimurakami.com/): AngularJS front-end enabled complex transitions from page to page.
- Bethlehem Steel’s Hoover Mason Trestle (http://www.hoovermason.com/): AngularJS application to “walk” the elevated steelworkers’ trestle
- Slavery at Monticello (http://app.monticello.org/): iOS/Android native application that chronicles the lives of slaves along Mulberry Row in Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s estate)
- James Ensor: The Temptation of Saint Anthony touchscreen: Cinder (C++) touchscreen for Art Institute of Chicago