API Fetch

Utility to make WordPress REST API requests. It's a wrapper around window.fetch.

Installation

Install the module

npm install @wordpress/api-fetch --save

This package assumes that your code will run in an ES2015+ environment. If you're using an environment that has limited or no support for such language features and APIs, you should include the polyfill shipped in @wordpress/babel-preset-default in your code.

Usage

GET

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';

apiFetch( { path: '/wp/v2/posts' } ).then( ( posts ) => {
	console.log( posts );
} );

GET with Query Args

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';
import { addQueryArgs } from '@wordpress/url';

const queryParams = { include: [1,2,3] }; // Return posts with ID = 1,2,3.

apiFetch( { path: addQueryArgs( '/wp/v2/posts', queryParams ) } ).then( ( posts ) => {
	console.log( posts );
} );

POST

apiFetch( {
	path: '/wp/v2/posts/1',
	method: 'POST',
	data: { title: 'New Post Title' },
} ).then( ( res ) => {
	console.log( res );
} );

Options

apiFetch supports and passes through all options of the fetch global.

Additionally, the following options are available:

path (string)

Shorthand to be used in place of url, appended to the REST API root URL for the current site.

url (string)

Absolute URL to the endpoint from which to fetch. The request still goes through the registered middlewares, so see Requests to other sites before pointing it at another site.

parse (boolean, default true)

Unlike fetch, the Promise return value of apiFetch will resolve to the parsed JSON result. Disable this behavior by passing parse as false.

data (object)

Sent on POST or PUT requests only. Shorthand to be used in place of body, accepts an object value to be stringified to JSON.

Requests to other sites

apiFetch is meant for the REST API of the WordPress site the script runs on. Whenever WordPress loads the package it registers the root URL and nonce middlewares, so with the default fetch handler every request, including one made with a full url, is sent with the current user's X-WP-Nonce header and with cookies (credentials: 'include'). A WordPress site on another origin cannot validate that nonce and rejects the request with a 403 rest_cookie_invalid_nonce error, even for public endpoints, and other origins may refuse a credentialed cross-origin request altogether.

Use window.fetch for requests to other sites, or make them from the server. A browser request to another site still needs that site to allow the cross-origin request; a WordPress site does so through the CORS headers its REST API sends by default.

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';

// Same site: goes through the middlewares.
apiFetch( { path: '/wp/v2/posts' } ).then( ( posts ) => {
	console.log( posts );
} );

// Another site: use fetch directly.
window
	.fetch( 'https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts' )
	.then( ( response ) => response.json() )
	.then( ( posts ) => {
		console.log( posts );
	} );

Aborting a request

Aborting a request can be achieved through the use of AbortController in the same way as you would when using the native fetch API.

For legacy browsers that don't support AbortController, you can either:

• Provide your own polyfill of AbortController if you still want it to be abortable.
• Ignore it as shown in the example below.

Example

const controller =
	typeof AbortController === 'undefined' ? undefined : new AbortController();

apiFetch( { path: '/wp/v2/posts', signal: controller?.signal } ).catch(
	( error ) => {
		// If the browser doesn't support AbortController then the code below will never log.
		// However, in most cases this should be fine as it can be considered to be a progressive enhancement.
		if ( error.name === 'AbortError' ) {
			console.log( 'Request has been aborted' );
		}
	}
);

controller?.abort();

Middlewares

the api-fetch package supports middlewares. Middlewares are functions you can use to wrap the apiFetch calls to perform any pre/post process to the API requests.

Example

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';

apiFetch.use( ( options, next ) => {
	const start = Date.now();
	const result = next( options );
	result.then( () => {
		console.log( 'The request took ' + ( Date.now() - start ) + 'ms' );
	} );
	return result;
} );

Removing middlewares

apiFetch.unregister removes a middleware by reference, and returns whether it was registered. Built-in middlewares can be removed too, as long as they are exposed on apiFetch.

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';

// Send `DELETE` as `DELETE`, rather than as a `POST` carrying an `X-HTTP-Method-Override` header.
apiFetch.unregister( apiFetch.httpV1Middleware );

Removal is global. Every apiFetch call on the page loses the middleware, so only remove a middleware you registered yourself, or a built-in whose behavior the whole page can do without. httpV1Middleware in particular exists so that requests keep working on servers and firewalls that reject PATCH, PUT and DELETE; removing it can break saving on those sites.

Built-in middlewares

The api-fetch package provides built-in middlewares you can use to provide a nonce and a custom rootURL.

Nonce middleware

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';

const nonce = 'nonce value';
apiFetch.use( apiFetch.createNonceMiddleware( nonce ) );

The function returned by createNonceMiddleware includes a nonce property corresponding to the actively used nonce. You may also assign to this property if you have a fresh nonce value to use.

Root URL middleware

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';

const rootURL = 'http://my-wordpress-site/wp-json/';
apiFetch.use( apiFetch.createRootURLMiddleware( rootURL ) );

Custom fetch handler

The api-fetch package uses window.fetch for making the requests but you can use a custom fetch handler by using the setFetchHandler method. The custom fetch handler will receive the options passed to the apiFetch calls.

Example

The example below uses a custom fetch handler for making all the requests with axios.

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';
import axios from 'axios';

apiFetch.setFetchHandler( ( options ) => {
	const { url, path, data, method } = options;

	return axios( {
		url: url || path,
		method,
		data,
	} );
} );

The default handler remains available, so it can be restored later.

apiFetch.setFetchHandler( apiFetch.defaultFetchHandler );

Contributing to this package

This is an individual package that's part of the Gutenberg project. The project is organized as a monorepo. It's made up of multiple self-contained software packages, each with a specific purpose. The packages in this monorepo are published to npm and used by WordPress as well as other software projects.

To find out more about contributing to this package or Gutenberg as a whole, please read the project's main contributor guide.