[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #39965: REST API: not possible to request collection of posts across post types

[WordPress Trac]

#39965: REST API: not possible to request collection of posts across post types
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 Reporter:  iseulde      |       Owner:  jnylen0
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  4.9
Component:  REST API     |     Version:  4.7
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:               |     Focuses:
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Comment (by danielbachhuber):

 Replying to [comment:6 jnylen0]:
 > While it's true that `/wp/v2/posts` currently means "posts with
 `post_type` of `post`", at least a post of another type is still a post.

 This is an incorrect assumption that will likely lead to negative
 downstream implications. In the context of the database schema, yes
 different content types are stored in the same table (and history shows
 some of the ramifications of that).

 In the context of the REST API data model, not all posts are alike — in
 fact, they can be more different than similar.

 Is a `nav_item` a type of post? Is a WooCommerce `product` a type of post?
 Both are shaped drastically different than a standard WordPress `post`.
 Any client code trying to handle arbitrarily shaped data is going to be a
 mess.

 Furthermore, I believe trying to fit a `type` argument into
 `WP_Posts_Controller` would be a pretty substantial monkey-patch
 development job. Currently, a request to `/wp/v2/posts` follows a
 different code path than a request to `/wp/v2/pages`. You'd need to hack
 around the PHP architecture to get the controllers to behave consistently.

 And so on.

 > How about a separate endpoint like `/wp/v2/posts/all_types`?

 This seems like a hack to me. If there's one specific feature of Gutenberg
 for this use-case, then I'd suggest Gutenberg handle this entirely and
 leave the API as it is.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/39965#comment:7>
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