How it works
Because all API’s are wildly different in their naming conventions and the data that they contain, it would be impossible to create a ‘one size fits all’ plugin for this purpose. There are just far too many variables to account for.
This is why the plugin is called ‘Custom Listings‘ – we will customise the plugin to suit your requirements and to suit the API that you are using.
The import process for each API is largely the same, but when it comes to the data that needs to be displayed on the website and how this data should be formatted – this is where having a custom solution is required.
We will work with you to setup the plugin, connect to your API, retrieve the data and format it to suit your website. The plugin comes with basic CSS styling only – you (or your own developer) will be responsible for final CSS designs and matching the style to your website.
Features of the Custom Listings plugin
The Custom Listings plugin works with our free WPGetAPI plugin to call your API, retrieve the items from the API and then creates a new Listing (as a custom post type) for each item in the API. These Listings are then displayed on your website with features such as sorting, pagination, search box, Google maps, featured listings and more.
Listings can be imported manually with the click of a button or a schedule can be set to automatically import the listings at your given interval. The plugin can also process and import featured images.
The Custom Listings plugin uses a similar templating system to Woocommerce. You can copy the template files from the plugin and add them to a /wpgetapi/ folder within your theme and then freely edit these files. This allows you (or your developer) to easily customise things without fear of messing up the plugin.
Examples
Below are some of the Custom Listings plugins we have created.
Apprenticeship listings website
This plugin is now available here – https://wpgetapi.com/downloads/uk-apprenticeship-vacancies/
This Custom Listings plugin was created for the national UK apprenticeship service. The plugin is calling the UK Government apprenticeship API that can be found here – https://api.apprenticeships.education.gov.uk/vacancies
The plugin imports apprenticeships for a defined region and then displays these listings in the map as well as individual listings. The search and filter feature is being used as well as pagination and sorting.
Safety course listings website
This Custom Listings plugin was created to display a list of over 700 safety courses available through the Health & Safety Council in Texas.
The plugin was custom built to call multiple different API endpoints. The first endpoint retrieves the entire list of courses, which we import into the website and then create the listings from that data. When a user clicks on any course, we then need to call the CourseSchedule endpoint and we retrieve the scheduled and upcoming classes for that particular course. This was custom built to the clients requirements and all handled by WPGetAPI – you can see the multiple endpoints setup in the images below.
Other than that, it is fairly straightforward with a very simple keyword search and simple listings display.
