imath 3:08 pm on July 12, 2019
Tags:   

BP Dev Chat Summary: July 10, 2019

BP REST API focus

REST fields (~= BuddyPress Components metadata)

PRs #189, #193, & #194 have been merged into the BP REST API by @espellcaste : they brought these REST fields for the Activity, Groups, Members, Messages, Notifications, and xProfile (field/group/data) endpoints.

If you are a BuddyPress plugin developer, here’s how you can use this feature to create/update and get your custom REST Fields.

// Registers a REST field for the Activity Endpoints.
function example_register_activity_rest_field() {
	bp_rest_register_field(
		'activity',      // Id of the BuddyPress component the REST field is about
		'example_field', // Used into the REST response/request
		array(
			'get_callback'    => 'example_get_rest_field_callback',    // The function to use to get the value of the REST Field
			'update_callback' => 'example_update_rest_field_callback', // The function to use to update the value of the REST Field
			'schema'          => array(                                // The example_field REST schema.
				'description' => 'Example of Activity Meta Field',
				'type'        => 'string',
				'context'     => array( 'view', 'edit' ),
			),
		)
	);
}
add_action( 'bp_rest_api_init', 'example_register_activity_rest_field' );

/**
 * The function to use to get the value of the REST Field.
 *
 * @param  array  $array     The list of properties of the BuddyPress component's object.
 * @param  string $attribute The REST Field key used into the REST response.
 * @return string            The value of the REST Field to include into the REST response.
 */
function example_get_rest_field_callback( $array, $attribute ) {
	// The key of the metadata can be different from the REST Field key.
	$metadata_key = '_example_metadata_key';
	
	return bp_activity_get_meta( $array['id'], $metadata_key );
}

/**
 * The function to use to update the value of the REST Field.
 *
 * @param  object $object    The BuddyPress component's object that was just created/updated during the request.
 *                           (in this case the BP_Activity_Activity object).
 * @return string $value     The value of the REST Field to save.
 * @param  string $attribute The REST Field key used into the REST response.
 */
function example_update_rest_field_callback( $object, $value, $attribute ) {
	// The key of the metadata can be different from the REST Field key.
	$metadata_key = '_example_metadata_key';
	
	bp_activity_update_meta( $object->id, $metadata_key, $value );
}

View the code on Gist.GitHub.com

REST links

The Message endpoint got its filterable links (See the prepare_links() method of its endpoint).

@espellcaste and I are agreeing the other components should also include a filter to let plugin developers eventually add custom links. #Needs-PR 😉

Documentation site about the BP REST API

We’ve discussed about the post where I suggest possible roads for a while with @espellcaste. In particular, I’ve shared my 2 concerns about the Restsplain plugin generated documentation :

  • I think we should use it to write a more “human understandable” documentation. For instance, use “Create an activity” instead of POST
  • It would be better to use our bp.apiRequest function in code examples instead of the fetch() one.

NB: After the Dev Chat, @johnjamesjacoby advised to keep docs and support on BuddyPress.org to avoid fragmentation, and to maintain user trust. I agreed it was best and opened a ticket on the Meta Trac (See #4601) to move forward.

Updates about the Tickets into the 5.0.0 milestone

It would be great to have the patches attached to the following list of tickets tested during the next 2 weeks:

Next dev-chat

It will happen on July 24th at 19:00 UTC in #BuddyPress slack channel. In the meantime: have fun contributing to BuddyPress 👩🏻‍💻, we have 1 month left before 5.0.0 first beta 🗓

#5-0