Implementing Webhooks capability on a web service

[dhruvg]

Hey all,

So, there has been a lot of talk about HTTP pubsub with Webhooks. But
the assumption is that many existing web services will actually
implement Webhook functionality. When I say 'implement', I am
referring to the following:

- adding the feature to allow the creation of callback URLs to various
events
- creating the various types of events that you can associate callback
URLs for
- making a logic layer for triggering these events and assembling the
appropriate event data to send to the callback URL

The above three things seem to require a considerable effort from the
average web developer. Is this assessment wrong? If so, are there any
statistics on Webhook uptake in web services?

If this assessment is sound, are there any open source projects in
development which can provide web developers with an easy and
intuitive way to provide the above three things so the Webhook ?
Because the easier it is to do the three things above, the more
popular HTTP pubsub (and in effect, PSHB protocol) will become, right?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Dhruv

[Jeff Lindsay]

Dhruv,

I agree there is effort involved in implementing webhooks. Your assessment mostly sound. Perhaps some details can be simplified. It comes down to 1) letting the user give you a callback URL, 2) deciding what events to trigger on and invoking that callback. You don't need to let users provide a different URL for each event. You don't need to define upfront what events you trigger on except for documentation.

Those two things alone should not be considerable effort for an average web developer. The hard parts are in the details. Hookah is an open source HTTP request queue and dispatcher made for deploying webhooks. You might look into that. I'm sprinting on it next week and refactoring the PSHB hub module out into a separate project.

Also, this might have been more appropriate on the webhooks mailing list? *shrug*

-jeff

--
Jeff Lindsay
http://webhooks.org -- Make the web more programmable
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