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Jul 28, 2021 4:52:30 PM
Apr 16, 2021 5:16:00 AM
Answer
Webhooks and triggered blends have a lot in common and could easily be confused. They both support real-time integrations where Blendr is notified of changes as they happen, rather than Blendr polling for data on a regular schedule to see if anything has changed.
This article will elaborate on the differences between the two types of real-time triggers that Blendr supports: webhooks and triggered blends.
Let's first start with a summary of the key terminology in Blendr.
Automated webhooks: Automated webhooks in Blendr are webhooks which automatically create a subscription in the calling system (e.g. Eventbrite), and the user creating the webhook-triggered blend does not need to configure anything in Eventbrite directly. Blendr can register a webhook via the Eventbrite API, which happens automatically when a new blend starts using this webhook.
Manual webhooks: some APIs offer webhooks (event notifications), but don't offer the opportunity to register a new webhook via API (e.g. Chargebee). In that case, the user creating the blend, needs to perform the webhook registration manually in Chargebee. In this case Blendr will generate a URL which can then be configured manually.
Triggered blends: these are a powerful alternative when a system does not offer native webhooks (e.g. Salesforce), but users can choose to add scripts triggered by certain events. In these scripts they can then choose to make an API call to trigger a specific blend. In this scenario, Blendr again generates a URL which can be called via REST.
Looking at this terminology, both manual webhooks and triggered blends have a lot in common. There are two big distinction points between the two.
The first big distinction is the source of the call. In the manual webhook scenario, we expect the call to come from the specific Chargebee datasource that is connected. In the triggered blend scenario, the call could come from Postman or Salesforce, or just about any application that can make an API call.
The second important distinction is the uniqueness of the URL. For a manual webhook, the URL generated by Blendr will not necessarily be unique. If two blends use the same datasource and listen to the same webhook event, with no other parameters to distinguish in the Blendr set-up, the same URL will be shown in both blends.
Even in automated webhooks, for efficiency reasons, Blendr will only register the webhook once, with one URL, and will distribute it further down to all blends which need to listen to that event. In a triggered blend however, every URL will be unique.
