Attachments/media endpoint: Add an embeddable post as a link in attachments REST API response #10027

andrewserong · 2025-09-24T02:27:14Z

In the attachments controller (i.e. for the media endpoint) add post to the links in the API response, that provides a link to the API call to get the linked post — i.e. the parent, or the post that the media item is attached to.

The purpose is to make it easier to fetch linked posts or pages that media items are attached to, via the REST API. This is part of some of the work I've been exploring for the new media library (proposed in WordPress/gutenberg#55238). When listing (or providing UI to make changes to) the "uploaded to" field (or "attached to" or whatever it should be called), it'll be easier to do so if we can embed the post in the API response for media items.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64034

Testing instructions

If you'd like to test this from within the block editor:

Open up the media library and upload a couple of images.
From the list view within the media library, click Attach under the Uploaded To column and attach one of the media items to a post
Make a note of the ids of your two images (i.e. grab them from the url)
Open the block editor, and try running the following from your browser console (note you might have to run these commands twice as the first call will return undefined as the request hasn't been resolved yet):

// Replace 27 with the id of an image that is attached to a post — you should see `post` in the list of `_links`
wp.data.select( 'core' ).getEntityRecord( 'postType', 'attachment', 27 );
// Again, replace 27 with the id of an image that is attached to a post — in this call, you should see the post under `_embedded` in the response
wp.data.select( 'core' ).getEntityRecord( 'postType', 'attachment', 27, { _embed: 'post' } );

Try the above but with the id of an image that is not attached to a post. You shouldn't see post in the list of _links.

This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

github-actions · 2025-09-24T02:59:05Z

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Props andrewserong, ramonopoly, mukesh27, adamsilverstein.

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github-actions · 2025-09-24T03:26:17Z

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andrewserong · 2025-09-25T05:52:30Z

@rmccue and @spacedmonkey just adding you as reviewers for this one as I know you've both done a lot of REST API work in the past. I've had a bit of a break from contributing directly to core this year, so apologies for the ping if you're not the right folks to ping on these sorts of PRs (and of course let me know if there's anyone else I should request a review from). Thanks!

ramonjd

Looking good to me. Thanks for the tests. I had a question about the post type some folks might be able to verify.

ramonjd · 2025-09-25T06:32:42Z

src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-attachments-controller.php

+		if ( ! empty( $post->post_parent ) ) {
+			$links['post'] = array(
+				'href'       => rest_url( rest_get_route_for_post( $post->post_parent ) ),
+				'embeddable' => true,


Looking at other controllers, embeddable links often include additional attributes. Example:

https://github.com/ramonjd/wordpress-develop/blob/trunk/src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-comments-controller.php#L1193Looking at other controllers, embeddable links often include additional attributes

Would it be useful to know the post type before embedding?

Good question! That could also be useful for requests that aren't embedding, but that would like to fetch the linked resource in a separate request, as they'd know the post type 👍

I'm curious for feedback on this, as we'd need to add a call to get_post to grab the post type, but overall I like the idea!

would like to fetch the linked resource in a separate request, as they'd know the post type

A use case could be interacting with the wordpress/core-data package, or directly linking to an editor instance, e.g., /wp-admin/site-editor.php?p=/page/3&canvas=edit.

Access to the post type and id is required.

Having said that, it's something that can be added later so unless there's a perceived and medium-term need for it, I think it's okay to leave out.

Really good points, I'm happy to update it, I think it'll make the link far more useful to include the post type 👍

Updated in 770e64e to add in the post_type and ids:

How's that looking?

src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-attachments-controller.php

…achments REST API response

…ontroller.php Co-authored-by: Mukesh Panchal <mukeshpanchal27@users.noreply.github.com>

ramonjd

LGTM

This is a small change and (in my opinion) non-controversial.

It makes sense to be able to embed an attachment's attached post.

There is talk about allowing multiple parents for attachments, e.g.,

They are 12+ years old though, so I think any changes to many-to-many relationships for these post types can be dealt with if it ever gets in.

andrewserong · 2025-09-30T06:10:18Z

Thanks for the review! I'll just ping another couple of folks for visibility in case anyone else has opinions on the shape of this change. FYI: @swissspidy and @adamsilverstein in case this touches upon any media stuff y'all are working on.

adamsilverstein

Changes look fine to me, thanks @andrewserong!

andrewserong · 2025-10-03T01:23:57Z

Thanks everyone! I'll look to commit this today

github-actions · 2025-10-03T01:38:14Z

A commit was made that fixes the Trac ticket referenced in the description of this pull request.

SVN changeset: 60893
GitHub commit: 2da7a59

This PR will be closed, but please confirm the accuracy of this and reopen if there is more work to be done.

andrewserong marked this pull request as ready for review September 24, 2025 02:47

andrewserong requested review from talldan, ramonjd, tellthemachines, rmccue and spacedmonkey September 25, 2025 05:24

ramonjd reviewed Sep 25, 2025

View reviewed changes

mukeshpanchal27 reviewed Sep 26, 2025

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src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-attachments-controller.php Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

andrewserong and others added 5 commits September 30, 2025 13:32

Attachments/media endpoint: Add an embeddedable post as a link in att…

d82ff7f

…achments REST API response

Make sure test plays nicely if the base url is different

5a0429e

Add ticket number

f756f55

Update src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-attachments-c…

43d53b4

…ontroller.php Co-authored-by: Mukesh Panchal <mukeshpanchal27@users.noreply.github.com>

Add id and post_type to links

770e64e

andrewserong force-pushed the add/post-to-attachment-links-in-rest-api-response branch from cb08d80 to 770e64e Compare September 30, 2025 05:02

ramonjd approved these changes Sep 30, 2025

View reviewed changes

swissspidy requested a review from TimothyBJacobs September 30, 2025 07:22

adamsilverstein reviewed Oct 2, 2025

View reviewed changes

github-actions bot closed this Oct 3, 2025

andrewserong mentioned this pull request Oct 6, 2025

REST API media endpoint: Update post relation to use api.w.org namespace / prefix #10163

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Attachments/media endpoint: Add an embeddable post as a link in attachments REST API response #10027

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