Webhooks

About Webhooks

Our webhooks are a more efficient way of managing events than using the management API to query information that changes over time. Instead of constantly polling for updates, a webhook is set up once and is only triggered when a specific event occurs. The main advantage of webhooks is that they provide real-time data updates on the various parameters used in license management.

Webhooks are callback mechanisms that web applications use to provide real-time notifications to other systems. Essentially, a webhook is a way for an application to send data to another application automatically when certain events occur.

The basic idea behind webhooks is that one application sends an HTTP POST request to a URL specified by another application, indicating that a certain event has occurred. The receiving application then processes the data in the request and takes appropriate action based on the content.

Webhooks are commonly used in a wide variety of applications, such as:

Integrating with third-party services to receive notifications when specific events occur
Triggering custom workflows or automation tasks in response to user actions
Updating data in real-time across multiple systems and applications
Automating data synchronization between different systems

In essence, webhooks operate in contrast to APIs, which require the client application to continuously request updates from the server. With webhooks, the server proactively pushes data to the client, eliminating the need for the client to check for updates and reducing the server's workload constantly.

Security

Each webhook call is sent with the N-Signature header in the HTTP Post request. This header contains a signature of the webhooks payload message created with your account's RSA key. It's a good practice to create a signature from the payload received and compare it with the header value. If it matches, it means the webhook was sent by the Zentitle2 service and not by a malicious actor.

The RSA key can be obtained from the "API Credentials" page. An example of the signature verification is implemented in our example code: https://github.com/Nalpeiron/samples-dotnet/tree/master/Webhooks.Console

Managing webhooks

Adding a webhook

Webhooks are located under the "Administration" > "Webhooks" on the top menu.

To add a new webhook handler, click on 'Add Webhook'.

Enter the URI of the webhook handler.

Select the events that you wish the handler to manage.

Click on 'Save Events'.

Then click on 'Save' to add the webhook:

Editing a webhook

To edit an existing webhook handler, click on that entry.

Update the appropriate details.

Click 'Save Events.'

Then, click "Save."

Deleting a webhook

To delete a webhook handler, click on it.

Click "edit."

Click the 'three dots' icon and "Delete webhook."

Click "Delete".

Testing

To test your webhook handler, click on the 'Test' button to the right of the listed events.

Confirm you wish to trigger a call to the specified webhook handler.

This action generates a new WebhookEvent and triggers a call to the listener URI. The payload of this call is empty; the resource id contains the ID of the listener:

This event is not retried if the request fails. Hit 'Test' again to generate another event.