Webhooks

Webhooks are used by organizations to keep other applications in sync with their R-Service accounts. Scripts that are published on public web servers (i.e. servers that can be accessed from the internet) can be called by webhooks in near real-time to collect data from R-Service and to use this data to update an external application or to perform an update in R-Service itself.

What Are Webhooks?

Webhooks are a way to tell R-Service to call a script on a web server whenever a given event occurs in R-Service. A script is typically developed to execute specific actions for an organization that uses R-Service. The organization for which such a script was developed normally hosts it on one of its own web servers.

Some possible uses for webhooks include:

Registering Webhooks

Webhooks can be created in an organization’s R-Service account by going to Settings → Webhooks in the R-Service application, or with the R-Service Webhooks API.

Select the event that needs to be listened to from the select box, and enter the URI that needs to receive the call from the webhook.

Once a webhook has been registered and verified, R-Service issues an HTTP POST call to the URI specified in the webhook every time the selected event occurs.

Webhooks are asynchronous events. They are sent near real-time. Sometimes there can be a small delay.

R-Service calls the specified URI every time the event happens. This means that if, for example, a bulk-upload of 1,000 tasks is performed, the webhook is called 1,000 times if its selected event is task.create.

Verification

In order to ensure that you are the true owner of the endpoint defined in the webhook URI field a verification step is necessary.

When a webhook is first registered R-Service will immediately send a webhook.verify webhook to the URI endpoint defined in that webhook.

The payload contains a callback parameter that must be called to prove you are the true owner of the URI defined in the webhook:

POST  /mywebhook HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Host: myserver.example.com
User-Agent: R-Service/1.0 (https://developer.r-service.tech/v1/webhooks)
Link: <https://mycompany.r-service.tech/webhooks/219>; rel="canonical",
      <https://api.r-service.tech/v1/webhooks/219>; rel="resource"
{
  "webhook_id": 219,
  "webhook_nodeID": "NG1lMjQuMjIwODEyMTAxMzQ1QDRtZS1kZW1vLmNvbS9XZWJob29rLzM",
  "account": "https://mycompany.r-service.tech",
  "name": "Note added to Request of mycompany",
  "event": "webhook.verify",
  "object_id": 219,
  "object_nodeID": "NG1lMjQuMjIwODEyMTAxMzQ1QDRtZS1kZW1vLmNvbS9XZWJob29rLzM",
  "person_id": 8543,
  "person_nodeID": "NG1lMjQuMjIwODEyMTAxMzQ1QDRtZS1kZW1vLmNvbS9QZXJzb24vNg",
  "person_name": "Howard Tanner",
  "payload": {
    "callback": "https://mycompany.r-service.tech/webhooks/219/verify?code=EmzqeGYTj5LAIwY-hWoYNLJQ&expires_at=1610618451"
  }
}

For manual verification simply paste the callback URL in your favourite web browser.

For automated verification make sure the server that receives the webhook.verify message sends a GET or POST request to the callback URL:

$ curl -v https://mycompany.r-service.tech/webhooks/219/verify?code=EmzqeGYTj5LAIwY-hWoYNLJQ&expires_at=1610618451
 

Before calling the callback URL, it is recommended to verify the authenticity of the webhook. Verify the webhook request you receive is in fact originating from your R-Service account and that the contents are what you expect.

When another webhook with the exact same URI was already verified in your R-Service account the verification step will not be initiated again when subsequent webhooks are created.

If you create a webhook before the server is ready to receive the webhook.verify message, it is possible to resend the verification code from the GUI within 24 hours. When an unverified webhook is updated a new webhook.verify message is send with a fresh verification code that is valid again for 24 hours. The old verification callback URL is then no longer valid.

Note that if the URI of a webhook is updated it needs to be verified again. The webhook will be inactive until the verification callback is received by R-Service. Of course it is possible to define a new webhook first and delete the old webhook once the new one has been verified to ensure no events are missed.

Webhook Contents

Webhooks are sent as HTTP POST calls to URIs with a JSON body (with Content-Type: application/json) for easy parsing in almost any programming language. Webhook callback bodies can contain the following parameters:

webhook_id
The identifier of the webhook registered in R-Service.
webhook_nodeID
The GraphQL identifier of the webhook registered in R-Service.
account_id
The account ID of your organization’s R-Service account.
account
The url of your organization’s R-Service account.
custom_url
The custom url of your organization’s R-Service account, if defined.
name
The name of the webhook that got fired.
event
The event of the webhook that got fired.
object_id
The identifier of the R-Service record that triggered the event. Use this identifier to make a R-Service API call to retrieve further details if needed.
object_nodeID
The GraphQL identifier of the R-Service record that triggered the event. Use this identifier to make a R-Service API call to retrieve further details if needed.
person_id
The identifier of the person that triggered the event. This field is empty if the trigger was caused by a system event.
person_nodeID
The GraphQL identifier of the person that triggered the event. This field is empty if the trigger was caused by a system event.
person_name
The name of the person that triggered the event. This field is empty if the trigger was caused by a system event.
payload[audit_line_id]
The identifier of the audit entry that R-Service generated for the creation or update of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included only when the event caused an audit entry to be generated. The addition of a note, or specifying a value in the Time spent field, does not cause an audit entry to get generated.
payload[audit_line_nodeID]
The GraphQL identifier of the audit entry that R-Service generated for the creation or update of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included only when the event caused an audit entry to be generated. The addition of a note, or specifying a value in the Time spent field, does not cause an audit entry to get generated.
payload[note_id]
The identifier of the note record that was created during the creation or update of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included only when a note was created during the creation or update of the R-Service record that triggered the event.
payload[note_nodeID]
The GraphQL identifier of the note record that was created during the creation or update of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included only when a note was created during the creation or update of the R-Service record that triggered the event.
payload[source]
The source of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the Source field of the R-Service record that triggered the event does not contain a value.
payload[sourceID]
The source ID of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the Source ID field of the R-Service record that triggered the event does not contain a value.
payload[status]
The status of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the R-Service record that triggered the event does not have a Status field.
payload[previous_status]
The status of the R-Service record before its status was updated, causing the event to be triggered. This parameter is included only for the events request.status-changed, problem.status-changed, workflow.status-changed, task.status-changed, project.status-changed and project_task.status-changed.
payload[team][id]
The identifier of the team that is linked to the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the type of R-Service record that triggered the event cannot be assigned to a team.
payload[team][nodeID]
The GraphQL identifier of the team that is linked to the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the type of R-Service record that triggered the event cannot be assigned to a team.
payload[team][name]
The name of the team that is linked to the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the type of R-Service record that triggered the event cannot be assigned to a team.
payload[team][sourceID]
The source ID of the team that is linked to the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the Source ID field of this team does not contain a value.
payload[team][disabled]
The Disabled checkbox value of the team that is linked to the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if this team is enabled.
payload[team][account][id]
The account ID of the team that is linked to the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included whenever the R-Service record that triggered the event can be assigned and has a value in its Team field.
payload[team][account][name]
The name of the account of the team that is linked to the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included whenever the R-Service record that triggered the event can be assigned and has a value in its Team field.
payload[member][id]
The identifier of the person who is selected in the Member field of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included whenever the R-Service record that triggered the event has a value in its Member field.
payload[member][nodeID]
The GraphQL identifier of the person who is selected in the Member field of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included whenever the R-Service record that triggered the event has a value in its Member field.
payload[member][name]
The name of the person who is selected in the Member field of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included whenever the R-Service record that triggered the event has a value in its Member field.
payload[member][sourceID]
The source ID of the person who is selected in the Member field of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if the Source ID field of this person does not contain a value.
payload[member][disabled]
The Disabled checkbox value of the person who is selected in the Member field of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is not included if this person is enabled.
payload[member][account][id]
The account ID of the person who is selected in the Member field of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included whenever the R-Service record that triggered the event has a value in its Member field.
payload[member][account][name]
The name of the account of the person who is selected in the Member field of the R-Service record that triggered the event. This parameter is included whenever the R-Service record that triggered the event has a value in its Member field.

The payload for the following events contains additional information in their payload:

In addition references to URIs of interest are provided via the Link http header. The following relation types might be received:

canonical
URI to the affected resource viewable via the R-Service UI application.
resource
URI to the affected resource viewable via the R-Service API.
related
URI to a related affected resource viewable via the R-Service API. For example, if a note was added to a request, then this points to the note details. The link with relation type resource points to the request in this example.

Request

POST  /mywebhook HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Host: myserver.example.com
User-Agent: R-Service/1.0 (https://developer.r-service.tech/v1/webhooks)
Link: <https://mycompany.r-service.tech/requests/219>; rel="canonical",
      <https://api.r-service.tech/v1/requests/219>; rel="resource",
      <https://api.r-service.tech/v1/requests/219/notes/3455>; rel="related"
{
  "webhook_id": 945,
  "account": "https://mycompany.r-service.tech",
  "name": "Note added to Request of mycompany",
  "event": "request.note-added",
  "object_id": 219,
  "person_id": 8543,
  "person_name": "Howard Tanner",
  "payload": {
    "source": "self service",
    "member": {
      "name": "Tom Edwards",
      "id": 8529
    },
    "status": "workflow_pending",
    "team": {
      "id": 372,
      "name": "End-User Support, Houston"
    }
  }
}

Expected Response

Note: It is expected that the webhook service responds immediately to the webhook request.

Make sure the status code of the response is between 200 and 299 ( preferably 200 OK ) which indicates success. R-Service simply discards the rest of the results of the webhook.

The webhook request to the web server on which the script is hosted times out after 10 seconds. Move long running processes (e.g. PDF generation) into an asynchronous background task and make sure that the script responds immediately to the R-Service server.

Failed Callbacks

If R-Service receives anything other than a 2xx HTTP response code (likely meaning that the script has been moved, is non-existent, or misconfigured) or a request to the web server times out, R-Service retries the HTTP POST call periodically. After several failures, the message is dropped and no further delivery attempts are made. Email notifications are sent out for these exceptions. By default, these exception notifications are sent to each person who has the Account Administrator role of the account in which the webhook is registered.

Automatic Disabling

A webhook can be temporarily disabled. In addition, R-Service automatically disables a webhook when there have been 20 consecutive failures for the exact same webhook over a period longer than a week. The details of the disabled webhook (viewable via the R-Service application or via the Webhooks API) include the last error as received by R-Service.

Security and Privacy Considerations

As R-Service needs to call a script on a server of a different organization via a publicly available connection, there is a potential vulnerability to hacks on that server.

Triggered Accounts

Sometimes webhooks will be triggered by R-Service records registered in other accounts. For example when a Service Level Agreement registered in account globalnet is linked to a customer registered in the wdc account, sla.update webhooks for both accounts will be triggered when that Service Level Agreement is updated.

In general when a record is visible in the “All …” view, e.g. “All Service Level Agreements”, of an account then the webhooks will be triggered for that account.

Verifying the Authenticity of a Webhook

In order to verify that a webhook request is in fact originating from your R-Service account the webhook payload can be cryptographically signed. This is achieved by linking the webhook to a Webhook Policy. Within the R-Service application go to Settings → Webhooks Policies, and create a webhook policy choosing a preferred algorithm that will be used to cryptographically sign the webhook messages. When you receive a webhook request the payload will be a JSON Web Token (JWT). Use the public key from the webhook policy to decode and verify the payload. The private key of the webhook policy is only known to R-Service.

Additional measures could include adding a secret query parameter to the URI, and then to have this parameter checked by your script.

In addition, it is possible to use basic http authentication by providing the username:password in the webhook URI, like this:

https://myuser:mylogin@myserver.example.com/mywebhook

Lastly, R-Service always sends the identifier of the webhook as part of the response, which could also be used in a verification step. The identifier of a webhook can be found by selecting the webhook in the R-Service application and looking at the number that is visible in the address bar of the browser, and/or via the R-Service Webhooks API.

Testing Webhooks

Testing that a webhook works can be a bit of a challenge. Thanks to Webhook Tester this has been made quite simple.

Setting Up

First, be sure to have the Account Administrator role within the R-Service application.

Then visit Webhook Tester and copy the URL that is then shown in the header.

Within the R-Service application go to Settings → Webhooks. Add a new Webhook, select for example “request.update” from the Event select box, and paste the URL from Webhook Tester into the URI field, and save this webhook.

Verify the Webhook

Go back to Webhook Tester. You should have received a webhook request! At the “Raw Content” field be sure to check the field “Format JSON”. Then copy the callback URL from the payload, and paste this URL in a separate tab in your browser. You should then see the message “Verification successful”. The webhook is now successfully setup, and your webhook script is now ready to receive webhook requests.

Testing the Webhook Is Fired

To test that the webhook fires simply create a request and update it. Check if the webhook fired by refreshing the page at Webhook Tester.

Example Conversation

In the example below a webhook test is performed using the command line tool curl. This example shows how to test a webhook without actually modifying any data in R-Service.

Setting Up

First create a webhook:

$ curl -v -H "Authorization: Bearer <oauth-token>" \
          -H "X-4me-Account: wdc" \
          -X POST \
          -d '{"event":"request.create", "uri":"https://webhook.site/abc/1"}' \
          https://api.r-service.tech/v1/webhooks/

Status: 201 Created
Location: https://wdc.r-service.tech/webhooks/2
{
  "id": 2,
  "name": "Request created in WDC",
  "event": "request.create",
  "uri": "http://requestb.in/nlety4nl",
  "created_at": "2016-01-27T20:38:32-06:00",
  "updated_at": "2016-01-27T20:38:32-06:00"
}

Then verify the webhook.

And then test the webhook that was just created:

$ curl -v -H "Authorization: Bearer <oauth-token>" \
          -H "X-4me-Account: wdc" \
          -X POST
          https://api.r-service.tech/v1/webhooks/2/test

Status: 204 No Content

Refresh the Webhook Tester page. It should show a new event posted for the event request.create that triggered the webhook with webhook_id 2.