Automation - Workflow Action - Webhook

Sabqat Ruba

9 Mar, 2021 - Updated 10 months ago

Introduction

A webhook is a user-defined HTTP callback that is triggered when an event occurs. A web application that implements webhooks will POST a message to a URL when a particular event occurs at the source site.

In simple terms, you can alter or augment the behavior of a web page or a web application by using custom callbacks with a webhook method.

To learn more about webhooks, click here.

Why webhooks

You can use webhooks to notify your software application of changes that occur in Vtiger.

Business scenarios:

Closed a potential deal in Vtiger? Then use webhooks to push customer information to a third-party application (maybe an accounting software) to automatically generate an invoice.
You can push a newly created lead to a marketing list in your email marketing application.

How webhooks work

Webhooks help in communicating with third-party applications by sending instant web notifications. With webhooks, you can configure HTTP URLs and associate them with workflow rules to automate the notification process.

Webhooks supports all workflow-enabled modules.

Feature Availability

	Sales/Help Desk Professional	Sales Enterprise	Help Desk Enterprise	One Professional	One Enterprise
Feature Availability
Webhook	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Limits
Calls per user	250	500	500	500	500
Calls per day	25,000	50,000	25,000	50,000	50,000

Setting up Webhook Action

Let us learn how to set up webhooks by considering Freshbooks as the third-party accounting software.

Follow these steps to set up webhook action:

Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the screen
Click the Settings button
Look for the Automation section
Select Workflows
Click the +New Workflow button
Select Standard
Specify the basic information, workflow trigger, and entry criteria. To learn about them, click here
Set up the webhook action by clicking the Add Action drop-down
Select Webhook
Enter the Action Title and Description
Specify the URL of the third-party application under URL to Notify
- This supports two methods:
  1. POST - Creates a record in third-party
  2. PUT - Updates a record in third-party
- In our example, the closed deal’s data is sent to Freshbooks to create an invoice
- Example URL: POST - http://accounting_software_example_url.com
Select the format in which you want to notify under Content Type
- Vtiger supports four content types: XML, JSON, JSONARRAY, and FORM
Choose the Authorization Type
- Select the Basic Authentication radio button if the third-party provides an authenticated service. Otherwise, choose No Authentication
- If you choose Basic Authentication, then you must specify the username and password for the third-party account
Provide the entity Parameters of the third-party and their values that you want to push.
- You must enter the following for the example considered: Accounting Software ID, Account ID, Public ID, Authtoken, Fields present in third-party and their respective values in Vtiger
Click Save

Note:

You can add up to three webhooks per workflow.
You must add all the fields present in the third-party as parameters during the configuration.
Authentication fields and Public ID are the mandatory parameters.

Webhook Logs

Vtiger records every activity triggered when the configured event occurs. The log tables help you track the data that you send to the third-party application.

Follow these steps to view webhook logs:

Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the screen
Click the Settings button
Look for the Automation section
Select Workflows
Open the workflow that has the webhook action configured
Scroll down to the Actions section of the workflow
Click the View Webhook log link shown beside the action

You will see the following details in a webhook log. You can filter the log according to different statuses.

Different log statuses

Here are the different log statuses:

Queued: When the data is yet to be dispatched
Dispatched: When the data has been dispatched to the third-party
Success: When the data has been delivered to the third-party
Failed: When webhook fails to send the data

Note:

The web notifier service handles retries. There can be three retries:
- 1 hour for the first retry
- 2 hours for the second retry
- 4 hours for the third retry
Every retry is logged in the webhook log.
The record owner and all active admins are notified via email when a webhook fails.

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