Python Program to Create a Post on WordPress

Creating a post on WordPress programmatically can be achieved using Python by leveraging the WordPress REST API. This approach allows developers to automate content publishing, making it particularly useful for tasks like content migration, bulk posting, or integration with other systems. In this article, we’ll walk through how to set up a Python script to create a post on a WordPress site.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the code, ensure you have the following:

1. WordPress Site: A running WordPress site with administrative access.
2. REST API Access: Ensure the WordPress REST API is enabled on your site. The API is enabled by default in most installations.
3. API Authentication: You need to authenticate the API requests using Basic Authentication or OAuth. For simplicity, we’ll use Basic Authentication in this example.
4. Python Environment: A working Python environment. You can use pip to install necessary packages.

Step 1: Install Required Python Packages

You need the requests package to handle HTTP requests. Install it using pip:

bash:

pip install requests

Step 2: Generate API Credentials

For Basic Authentication, you need to generate an API key or use your WordPress username and password. To do this securely, consider using a plugin like Application Passwords to generate credentials.

Step 3: Write the Python Script

Here's a Python script that creates a new post on your WordPress site:

python:

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

# Replace with your WordPress site URL
wordpress_site = 'https://your-wordpress-site.com/wp-json/wp/v2'

# Replace with your username and application password
username = 'your-username'
password = 'your-application-password'

# The URL to create a post
post_url = f'{wordpress_site}/posts'

# Data for the new post
post_data = {
    'title': 'My First Post via Python',
    'content': 'This post was created using Python and the WordPress REST API.',
    'status': 'publish'  # Set to 'draft' if you don't want to publish immediately
}

# Send the POST request
response = requests.post(post_url, auth=HTTPBasicAuth(username, password), json=post_data)

# Check if the post was created successfully
if response.status_code == 201:
    print('Post created successfully.')
    print(f'Post ID: {response.json()["id"]}')
else:
    print(f'Failed to create post: {response.status_code}')
    print(response.json())

Explanation of the Script

• wordpress_site: Replace 'https://your-wordpress-site.com' with your actual WordPress site URL.
• username and password: These should be your WordPress credentials or the application password generated earlier.
• post_url: This is the endpoint to which the post data will be sent. /wp-json/wp/v2/posts is the standard endpoint for creating posts via the REST API.
• post_data: This dictionary contains the details of the post, such as the title, content, and status. You can also include other fields like categories, tags, or excerpt.
• response: The script sends a POST request to the WordPress site with the provided data. If the request is successful, the script prints a confirmation along with the ID of the created post.

Error Handling

The script includes basic error handling, checking if the status code of the response is 201, which indicates that the post was created successfully. If there's an error, the script will print the status code and the error message returned by the API.

Step 4: Run the Script

Save the script to a .py file and run it from your terminal:

bash:

python create_wp_post.py

If everything is set up correctly, the script will create a new post on your WordPress site and output the ID of the new post.

Conclusion

Automating the creation of WordPress posts using Python and the WordPress REST API is a powerful way to streamline content management tasks. By adjusting the post_data dictionary, you can easily customize the content and metadata of your posts, making this approach highly versatile for various use cases.