If you download the latest version of WordPress (at the time of this post, Version 4.8.1) it comes with the WordPress REST API. I was excited about this, mainly because I can now create a site with a Javascript Front-End, and utilize the REST data in WordPress as the backend.

When I get excited about something I want to get-to-work coding using it, so I downloaded WP, installed it locally and configured Apache on MAMP to point to the install and edited my /etc/hosts to give it a local hostname. I created a new user in MySQL, gave it permission to write to the new db instance I created, and added that to the WP install dialog when asked. Super smooth.

WordPress creates a ‘Hello World’ post for you, so I figured I could start seeing the API JSON output right away, I even installed a Chrome extension to format the JSON cleanly in my browser.

I went to my local instance and added /wp-json/ and got a 404 Not Found error. WTF? I immediately googled WP API 404 Not Found and didn’t find anything explaining why I wasn’t seeing API output.

Previously the WP API was a plugin, before it was added to the core of WordPress, and when it was a plugin you needed the Apache mod_rewrite working and Permalinks activated. But in the new WP API core module documentation, they don’t mention anything about mod_rewrite and Permalinks.

Turns out, to get the WP API to work, you do need the Apache module mod_rewrite working AND you have to setup Permalinks, which are turned off by default when installing. If I was writing the documentation I would put this at the top in red bold.

To get your REST API working, make sure your Apache httpd.conf has this line uncommented:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

If it is commented out, uncomment it and restart Apache. You’ll also need to setup Permalinks, which is in the Settings dropdown in wp-admin.

Permalinks

The default is set to Plain, when I changed the Permalink Setting to “Month and Name” and pressed the “Save Changes” button and went back to <wp url or ip>/wp-json/ the REST API output was there.

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Building Applications and Websites using Javascript and PHP

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Building Applications and Websites
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