node.js

Creating a webhook receiver with Node.js

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime that allows you to quickly build and deploy web applications. We will be using Node.js to deploy a simple application that listens on a local port for POST requests (our webhook payloads), and then writes those payloads to a textfile on disk.

Step One: Install Node.js

Before you begin, ensure you have installed Node.js version 8.x 👈

Once installed, you can confirm the version by typing node -v in your command prompt.

Step Two: Clone or download this repository

Once you have downloaded this repository, you will want to copy the server.js into your main folder.

Step Three: Obtain your certificate and update server.js

All communication between Portal and your webhook receiver must be done over HTTPS. You will need to add a valid certificate to your application's folder.

Then update the following line in the server.js file:

const options = {
  pfx: fs.readFileSync('your_certificate.pfx'),
  passphrase: 'certificate password'
};

Step Four: Launch your receiver

Go to your command prompt and launch the application:

cd <application's path>
node server.js

The application will be running on port 8000. You can now use this URL as your payload URL parameter. Note: If the server refuses to start with an error Cannot find module node-fqdn, from the command window, install the required module and try to start the server again:

npm install node-fqdn

Any payloads received will be written to the webhookPayloads.txt file in c:\temp as well as the console running the server.