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Software Engineering vocabulary · APIs, Networking and Security

Webhook

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈwebhʊk/nounCommon term

In software engineering, webhook means: A way for one system to automatically send an HTTP request to another system's URL when an event happens, such as a successful payment, instead of waiting to be asked.

In Turkish: webhook, olay bildirimi, geri çağırma URL'si

How it is used

Used by services such as Stripe, GitHub and Slack. You register or set up a webhook, and your webhook endpoint receives the events. The opposite approach is polling, which means asking again and again. Always verify the webhook signature for security.

Example sentences

  1. Stripe calls our webhook when a payment succeeds, and we mark the order as paid.

  2. The GitHub webhook triggers a build every time someone pushes to main.

Common collocations

  • set up a webhook
  • webhook endpoint
  • webhook payload
  • verify the webhook signature
  • endpointA specific URL of an API that accepts requests for one kind of action, such as GET /users to list users or POST /orders to create an order.
  • payloadThe actual data carried by a request, response or message, as opposed to the headers and other information around it.
  • APIShort for application programming interface: a set of rules that lets one program ask another program for data or actions in a fixed, documented way.
  • third-partyMade or provided by an outside company or developer, not by your own team, such as a payment service, library or analytics tool.

More terms: APIs, Networking and Security

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