A presentation on the WordPress Heartbeat API and how to use it.

1. What You Can Do With the
Heartbeat API
By Tabby Chapman
@tabbymarie
http://www.tabbychapman.com
1

2. About Tabby Chapman
@tabbymarie
https://github.com/tabbymarie
2

3. Github Public Contributions
3

4. Github Private Contributions
Like, I totally do stuff.
4

5. About Me
• Work for the University of California, Irvine
• Computer Scientist
• Developer Evangelist
• Education Junkie
5

6. About Me
• WordPress Skillz
– Reaching my 10th anniversary developing
with WordPress (waiting for the party hat)
– Started with 2.0.5, building a custom theme.
– Now, I build highly specialized custom themes
and plugins for UCI as well as freelance
clients.
6

7. About Me
• Born in Texas
• Moved 76 times (2 countries, 6 states)
• I have over 130 cousins and second
cousins.
• Pink is my favorite color.
• Owls are my favorite animals.
7

8. About This Presentation
• Geared towards beginner to intermediate
folks
• Assumptions:
– You know what WordPress is.
– You know what PHP, XML, JSON are.
– You’re not afraid to look these things up later
or ask questions.
8

9. WP Heart What?
• WP Heartbeat API
• Bi-Directional Communication between
browser and server… without the user
ever having to trigger an event.
• Using XHR, WP Heartbeat sends ‘ticks’
every 15 seconds by default
9

10. API Information
• An API (Application Programmer
Interface) is a set of methods designed to
share information between systems.
• Usually uses SOAP (Simple Object
Access protocol) or REST
(Representational State Transfer)
services.
– Many cases send data via XML or JSON.
10

11. API Information
• WP Heartbeat API users:
– XMLHttpRequest (XHR) to communicate from
Browser to Server
– REST to send reponse from Server to
Browser
11

12. What Happens During a Beat?
• Browser sends a communication to server
via XHR request. This request can contain
information about the user, browser, or
behavior.
• Server receives the information and may
or may not do anything with it.
• Server hands a response back to Browser.
12

13. When does this happen?
• By default, every 15 seconds when logged
into the admin panel.
• Can be modified with “fast,” “medium,” or
“slow” values.
• Happens at this interval only when the
page is targeted.
• Once untargeted or idle, the tick slows
down.
• After idle for 1 hour, the tick is expired.
13

14. Is there a downside?
• In the beginning there were some
performance issues on some sites
• Some hosts disabled sites for too much
usage
• WordPress 4.1 released fixes that
expanded max heartbeat tick to 120
seconds and completely expires after an
hour.
14

15. Where is it implemented?
• Initially, WP Heartbeat is implemented in
the administrative panel.
– Allows notification of users viewing or editing
posts simultaneously
– Locks posts that are being edited
– Creates Auto-save triggers for post editing.
– Notifies user of session expiration (logout)
15

16. Can it be disabled?
• There are plugins available to control your
Heartbeat Ticks.
16

17. What’s Under the Hood
• Filters
– heartbeat_nopriv_send
– heartbeat_nopriv_receive
– heartbeat_send
– heartbeat_receive
– heartbeat_settings
• Actions
– heartbeat_nopriv_tick
– heartbeat_tick
17

18. What’s Under the Hood
• heartbeat_settings filter you can modify
– Interval (15 – 60 seconds)
• This overrides the default interval
– Autostart (false)
• This disables autostart
18

19. How do I use it?
• Download and install
https://github.com/jeffikus/pulse
• Or create your own plugin
• Use the console in your browser to view
logged data
• Modify the pulse plugin to meet your
needs.
19

20. Overview of Pulse
20

21. Overview of Pulse
21

22. Overview of Pulse
22

23. Overview of Pulse
23

24. Overview of Pulse
24

25. Overview of Pulse
25

26. Overview of Pulse
26

27. Demo
27
https://github.com/tabbymarie/hb-path

28. What are some uses for this?
• Alerting users of new content posted
• Letting a user know when a friend has
signed on.
• Creating a means of real-time-ish private
messaging
• Dynamically updating widgets/sidebars
(i.e. various advertisements)
• Editors can change content mid-read.
28

29. Resources
• https://github.com/jeffikus/pulse
• https://github.com/tabbymarie/pulse
• https://github.com/tabbymarie/hb-path
• https://pippinsplugins.com/using-the-
wordpress-heartbeat-api/
• http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-
heartbeat-api-getting-started--wp-32446
• https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/
hooks/heartbeat_settings/ 29