Copy and paste the content below in a blank file and place it in your plugins directory, or download the file from here.

An example screenshot

A more efficient way of developing your plugin is to separate the administration and public side of your code into two distinct files. A quick check in the main plugin file to see if you are in the administration or public side of the site will enable you to load the relevant file, thus only loading the relevant part of the plugin.

Note: It is very easy using this method to get into the bad habit of duplicating code and functions. Think, instead, of having a common code file, or class, and using that rather than copying and pasting the same functions into both locations.

The following snippet of code checks for the existence of a callback function, and dependent on it’s existence (or not) outputs the correct content type.

Unfortunately, when it comes to debugging, most browsers try to force you to save JSON output to a file when it is sent with the correct content type. For this we also allow for an extra query string (called “pretty”) which will output the results as a straightforward text to be viewed within the browser.

Last week I read something that took my breath away (which I will go into in another post), so I decided to take some time out, have a break and count to 10.

I came back sunburned and smiling, but un-moved, and promptly deleted all of the old plugins I had released and the dev site that held the documentation.

So they are no more,  I don’t have backup copies and they won’t be coming back.

The staypress plugins will be released when complete, I have big plans for them and now have the structure in place to make them really rock – I’ve also set a deadline ( and future roadmap ) and am rushing towards it full-steam.

In my present state of mind though, I don’t see the point of releasing any other plugins for WordPress on this site (develop, yes, release, no). When I feel able to structure my words adequately enough to portray my anger with out needing to resort to name calling, I will.

Until then I shall return to my darkened room and sip coffee.

For this I am sorry, and so untill the old posts are transferred and new posts ready, I have disabled the sending of emails in Feedburner. I’m not sure how this will affect new subscribers signing up over on that site, but if you do have problems, feel free to sign up to the feed for this blog as any news will also appear here (probably first).

It also now has it’s own Google Code site as well. I will put together a short post or page going through how it is used for plugin developers very soon.

Update: I’ve just added version 0.2 to the download list (above) which now ensures the correct MIME types are set for the JSON output. I’m also going to put all the documentation for this plugin over at the Google Code page to keep things separate.

What is an API framework and why is this coming so soon?

The API framework plugin provides a parsing and authentication model for other plugins to hook into. In english, it sits in the background and looks for URLs sent in a specific format. It then grabs the URLs, parses them to work out the required area and action that is being requested, checks if the request has been registered as a public request (one that doesn’t require authentication) otherwise it retrieves and authenticates the request before passing it on to the relevant plugin for processing (passing along the relevant user id).

Finally, it retreives the results and outputs them back to the calling program. The currently available output options are JSON and JSONP. XML will be coming soon (the plugin already recognises URLs requesting an XML result set).

Effectively it means that any plugin can provide a RESTful API interface to it’s functionality without having to mess around with URLs, authentication and users.

Neat huh?

Why is this out so soon?

As a key part of the rest of my plugins will utilise the API framework, I found myself developing to a constantly changing specification. So I decided to sit down set the API framework in stone, so to speak.

As this is now done, we can move forward with everything else…

Unfortunately I didn’t figure the blogs.mu launch into the equation and the extra time that was required making sure everything was ready, tested and bug fixed. As well as writing a complete affiliate system plugin from scratch with less than 24 hours to launch time…

Now that it’s all up and running, quite smoothly as well thankfully, I can get back to scheduling in the StayPress system development and we can, finally, start to see some actual progress.

So, sorry for getting all your hopes up, and I hope I can give you all a nice present for being so patient.