upload image with rest API to the media library

Question

I am working on uploading an image to the media library and then attaching it to the featured image. I put the code below in my functions.php file and submitted a JSON file through postman, but for some reason it uploaded thousands of times until i had to kill the process and remove the code to get it to stop. It is uploading to the media library but keeps creating images. I have no loop in my code. I was just testing the code below to see if i could get it to run once. I am still learning how Wordpress works. Sorry if these are dumb questions.

1. Does functions.php continuously execute while Wordpress is running?
2. Should this be in functions.php file and how do i get it to execute only once?

    $url = 'http://localhost/download.png';
    $request = wp_remote_post(
        'http://localhost/wordpress/wp-json/wp/v2/media',
        array(
            'headers' => array(
                'Authorization' => 'Basic ' . base64_encode( 'api-user:xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx' ),
                'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="' . basename( $url ) . '"',
                'Content-Type: ' . wp_get_image_mime( $url ),
            ),
            'body' => file_get_contents( $url )
        )
    );
    
    if( 'Created' === wp_remote_retrieve_response_message( $request ) ) {
        $body = json_decode( wp_remote_retrieve_body( $request ) );
        $featured_image_id = $body->id;
    }

Answer 1

1. Does functions.php continuously execute while Wordpress is running?

Yes, it's run on each page load. You can learn more about the (theme) functions file at https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/theme-functions/.

2. Should this be in functions.php file and how do i get it to execute only once?

It can be put in that file, however, it should be run conditionally, e.g. put it in a function and then call the function from within your template file, or from within a hook. That's how you can get it to execute only once. (but whether it's actually going to be executed only once, depends on your code)

Example:

• Code in the active theme's functions.php file:

  <?php
  /**
   * Your Theme functions and definitions
   *
   * @link https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/theme-functions/
   */
  
  function my_upload_image_function() {
      // your code here which uploads the image
  }
  

• Then in your template file, just call the function when necessary: my_upload_image_function().

• Or you can hook the function on a specific action:

  add_action( 'hook_name', 'my_upload_image_function' );
  

So that's a brief info about the theme functions file, and now, this is about what your code is trying to do.

• I see you're making a remote POST request to the /wp/v2/media endpoint, but actually, you could instead use rest_do_request to make API requests internally, or use a WordPress-specific function for uploading files like media_sideload_image() which fetches a remote image and adds it to the WordPress media library.

Answer 2

Trying to get use to working on this site too. Lost the post for a few days, and didn't register properly i guess. I can't seem to get back to your last response.

The json file is for a custom post type. The custom post works fine. I can create a new custom post with updating custom fields using rest api. In addition i am looking to upload the image for that post, attach the image to the featured image at time of creation of the new custom post. Honestly, i am still learning the rest api and wordpress. In looking at /wp/v2/media and researching code. i only see samples for curl or wp_remote_post(). i pulled everything out of my functions php and it seems to be doing the same thing with wp_remote_post(). it will upload thousands of the image and won't stop. It seems to be getting stuck on wp_remote_post() and never getting past that. I put in debugging and it never gets out of the remote function. If i shouldn't call it on rest_api_init. I will look at the end point again to see if i can make it work directly. Just havn't been successful.