Quick hack of a rudimentaty "API" for subtle-patterns.com

subtlepatterns-api.php

<?php
/**
 * WP nastyness with Subtle Patterns for a extremely simplistic "API"
 * 
 * æauthor Fabian Wolf
 * @link http://usability-idealist.de/
 */

// bootstap WP framrework
require_once('../../../wp-config.php'); // assuming this file is sitting in some sub directory like wp-content/theme/my-theme/

// predefine some return value
$strReturn = json_encode( array('return' => 'no_data_found') }

// fetch posts based on category 'patterns'
$oCategory = get_category_by_slug('patterns'); // assuming we dont want to change the ID but go by slug

if( $oCategory != false ) { // only do this if we got the category_id 
	$arrQuery = array('category' => oCategory->term_id, 'order_by' => 'post_date' );
	
	$arrPosts = get_posts( $arrQuery );
	
	if( !empty( $arrPosts) ) {
	
		// prepare the nasty JSON data ...
		foreach ($arrPosts as $iCount => $post) {
			setup_postdata($post); 
		
			if( has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID ) != false ) {
				// Houston, we have a pattern image!
				$strImageURL = wp_get_attachment_url( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ) );
			} 
		
			// dump it all into an array
			$arrRow[$iCount] = array('title' => get_the_title(), 'description' => get_the_excerpt(), 'image' => strImageURL, 'date' => get_the_time('%s') /** Unix Epoch Time timestamp */,   );

		}
		
		// add success mesage
		$arrRow[] = array('return' => 'sucess');
		
		$strReturn = json_encode( $arrRow );
	}
}

// lets END THIS here ... 

exit( $strReturn );