We have an application which collaboratively collects data from authors. We want to upload curated content to different joomla powered sites. The current application is built on Ruby on Rails.
Does Joomla provide a RESTful API out-of-the-box or does it need an extension to be installed on the sites where we want to upload content as articles?
I came across an article how to publish content here but is written in PHP. How can I access the PHP api using HTTP?
There is no out of the box Joomla API but the team are working on a Web Services part for maybe Joomla 3.6 or soon after. This will then have full oAuth api services. I believe it will be based on the work of redWEB.
At the moment you would need to add an add on. Either one of the options other people have mentioned or a coded api talking direct with the DB. How to build a RESTful API with Joomla
I would go for jBackend or wait at the moment for the feature later in the year. http://www.selfget.com/products/jbackend.html
If you are looking for additional solutions, you may also want to look at the just released cAPI REST API for Joomla (http://getcapi.org). It is powered by the Slim PHP micro-framework, provides a token and parameter management component with accompanying plugins defining major service route groups (and upcoming add-ons).
cAPI provides both simple username/password authentication (via URL arguments) and token authentication (passed through HTTP header). Content creation/updates/deletes are rudimentary at the moment, with additional functionality in the works.
You may read a longer description from a different answer here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26340885/rest-api-for-joomla-3-0/32706378#32706378
Disclaimer: This is a commercial Joomla package development by me.
