Wordpress REST API remove all posts and images (media) via Python

Question

I feel like this should be something several other people already accomplished... to write a script that removes all sample data from a dev webpage using the Wordpress Rest API. Right now I try to automate posting images and posts, which works and leads to several of hundreds posts and images blowing up my database. Looking for a script doing that, neither ChatGPT nor browsing the web has provided any good answers.

Any ideas where to look for scripts like that or how to write it yourself?

Answer 1

I hope this helps someone else out in the future!!

Minimum Working Example (MWE)

1. Configure everything to connect to Wordpress Backend

import requests
import base64

def generate_auth_header():
    """Generate the authentication header for the Wordpress API."""
    try:
        user = "admin" # Set your username here
        password = "iTef fMhJ Rcij Azj3 Uban TeST" # Set your Appllication password here

        credentials = user + ":" + password

        token = base64.b64encode(credentials.encode())

        header = {"Authorization": "Basic " + token.decode("utf-8")}

        return header

    except IOError as e:
         raise IOError(f"Error connecting to Wordpress backend: {e}") from e

# Create header and wordpress URL
wordpress_url = 'http://localhost:10014/wp-json/wp/v2/' # Set your domain here
header = generate_auth_header()

Note: If you haven't set an Application Password yet, read this

2. Get all posts to delete each post by iterating

# Function to get all posts
def get_all_posts():
    posts_url = f'{wordpress_url}posts?per_page=100'
    response = requests.get(posts_url, headers=header, timeout=5)
    return response.json()

# Function to delete a post by ID
def delete_post(post_id):
    delete_url = f'{wordpress_url}posts/{post_id}'
    response = requests.delete(delete_url, headers=header, timeout=5)
    return response.status_code

# Get first 100 posts
posts = get_all_posts()
print(f"posts: {posts}")

# Delete all posts iterating over 100 posts at a time
while posts != []:
    for post in posts:
        post_id = post['id']
        delete_status = delete_post(post_id)
        if delete_status in [200, 201]:
            print(f"Post {post_id} deleted successfully.")
        else:
            print(f"Failed to delete post {post_id}, status code: {delete_status}")

    posts = get_all_posts()

Note: The query string ?per_page=100 in the GET-posts URL makes things easier instead of iterating over the default 10 posts at a time.

3. Get all images to delete each image by iterating

# Function to get all images
def get_all_media():
    media_url = f'{wordpress_url}media?per_page=100'
    response = requests.get(media_url, headers=header, timeout=5)
    return response.json()

# Function to delete each image by ID
def delete_media(media_id):
    delete_url = f'{wordpress_url}media/{media_id}?force=1'
    response = requests.delete(delete_url, headers=header, timeout=5)
    return response.status_code

# Get and delete all media (images)
media = get_all_media()
print(f"media: {media}")

# Delete all media (images) iterating over 100 images at a time
while media != []:
    for media_item in media:
        media_id = media_item['id']
        delete_status = delete_media(media_id)
        if delete_status in [200, 201]:
            print(f"Media {media_id} deleted successfully.")
        else:
            print(f"Failed to delete media {media_id}, status code: {delete_status}")

    media = get_all_media()

Note: Without the query string ?force=1 deleting images did not work for me.