Webhooks

Deta Micros make it extremely easy to deploy webhook servers.

Each Deta Micro has a unique HTTPS endpoint which can be used as the webhook URL.

You can use your favorite web application framework for your webhook server.

The guide assumes you have already signed up for Deta and have the Deta CLI installed.

JavaScript

We are going to use express with our Deta Micro and deploy a simple nodejs webhook server.

1. Create a directory express-webhook and change the current directory to it.

   $ mkdir express-webhook && cd express-webhook

2. Create an empty index.js file (we will add the code that handles the logic later).

3. Initialize a nodejs project with npm init

   $ npm init -y

   You can skip the -y flag, if you want to fill the details about the package interactively through npm's wizard.

4. Install express locally for your project.

   $ npm install express

5. Create a new nodejs micro with deta new. This will create a new nodejs micro for you and automatically install express as a dependency.

   $ deta new

   Successfully created a new micro

   {

   "name": "express-webhook",

   "runtime": "nodejs12.x",

   "endpoint": "https://{micro_name}.deta.dev",

   "visor": "enabled",

   "http_auth": "enabled"

   }

   Adding dependencies...

   + express@4.17.1

   added 50 packages from 37 contributors and audited 50 packages in 1.967s

   found 0 vulnerabilities

   Your micro's endpoint will be different from the output shown above. This endpoint will be the webhook URL when you set up your webhooks.

6. You can also see that the http_auth is enabled by default. We will disable the http_auth so that webhook events can be sent to the micro.

   $ deta auth disable

   Successfully disabled http auth

   note

   Usually for security, a secret token is shared between the sender and the receiver and a hmac signature is calculated from the payload and the shared secret. The algorithm to calculate the signature varies based on the sender. You should consult the documentation of how the signature is calculated for the system you are receiving events from.

7. Add a POST route to index.js. Most webhook callbacks send a POST request on the webhook URL with the payload containing information about the event that triggered the webhook.

   Open index.js and add the handler to handle webhook events.

   const express = require('express');

   const app = express();

   // a POST route for our webhook events

   app.post('/', (req, res) => {

   // verify signature if needed

   // add your logic to handle the request

   res.send("ok");

   });

   // you only need to export your app for the deta micro. You don't need to start the server on a port.

   module.exports = app;

8. Deploy your changes with deta deploy.

   $ deta deploy

   Successfully deployed changes

Your micro will now trigger on POST requests to the micro's endpoint. Use your micro's endpoint as the webhook URL when you set up your webhooks elsewhere.

In order to see the logs when the webhook is triggered, you can use deta visor to see real-time logs of your application. You can also replay your webhook events from deta visor to debug any issues.

You can open your visor page with the command deta visor open from the cli.

Python

We are going to use fastapi with our Deta Micro and deploy a simple python webhook server.

1. Create a directory fastapi-webhook and change the current directory to it.

   $ mkdir fastapi-webhook && cd fastapi-webhook

2. Create an empty main.py file (we will add the code that handles the logic later).

3. Create a requirements.txt file and add fastapi as a dependency.

   fastapi

4. Create a new python micro with deta new. This will create a new python micro for you and automatically install fastapi as a dependency.

   $ deta new

   Successfully created a new micro

   {

   "name": "fastapi-webhook",

   "runtime": "python3.7",

   "endpoint": "https://{micro_name}.deta.dev",

   "visor": "enabled",

   "http_auth": "enabled"

   }

   Adding dependencies...

   Collecting fastapi

   ...

   Successfully installed fastapi-0.61.1 pydantic-1.6.1 starlette-0.13.6

   Your micro's endpoint will be different from the output shown above. This endpoint will be the webhook URL when you set up your webhooks.

5. You can also see that the http_auth is enabled by default. We will disable the http_auth so that webhook events can be sent to the micro.

   $ deta auth disable

   Successfully disabled http auth

   note

   Usually for security, a secret token is shared between the sender and the receiver and a hmac signature is calculated from the payload and the shared secret. The algorithm to calculate the signature varies based on the sender. You should consult the documentation of how the signature is calculated for the system you are receiving events from.

6. Add a POST route to main.py. Most webhook callbacks send a POST request on the webhook URL with the payload containing information about the event that triggered the webhook.

   Open main.py and add the handler to handle webhook events.

   from fastapi import FastAPI, Request

   app = FastAPI()

   # a POST route for our webhook events

   @app.post("/")

   def webhook_handler(req: Request):

   # verify signature if needed

   # add logic to handle the request

   return "ok"

7. Deploy your changes with deta deploy.

   $ deta deploy

   Successfully deployed changes

Your micro will now trigger on POST requests to the micro's endpoint. Use your micro's endpoint as the webhook URL when you set up your webhooks elsewhere.

In order to see the logs of when the webhook is triggered, you can use deta visor to see real-time logs of your application. You can also replay your webhook events from deta visor to debug any issues.

You can open your visor page with the command deta visor open from the cli.