Today, We are going through an Interesting topic that all of you have heard of, “Webhooks” and “APIs”. Aren't these words familiar to you? Yes, You heard these words many times, if not you will understand by the end of today.
You’ve probably seen Webhooks Integration and use of API in a few of your applications and you’re wondering what they are and how it works?
Let’s Dive In:
What is a Webhook?
What is an API?
Difference between Webhook and API?
Example of Webhooks
Example of APIs
Conclusion
What is Webhook?
Webhook is one of the ways how two web applications communicate with each other. Webhooks are also called reverse API because communication is made between two web applications by sending the data as soon as a particular event takes place.
What we can do on the web can be described by events. So, Webhooks allow one program to send data to another as soon as a particular event takes place.
Web Services are interconnected more nowadays, Webhooks are in action as a perfect lightweight solution for real-time data updates.
What is an API?
API is a set of programs used to enable data transmission between two devices or we can say that it allows two or more applications to communicate with each other.
API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface. You know what is the meaning of “Interface”. As an Example API provides an interface for applications to interact with another application by sending and receiving data.
API also allows programmers to use predefined functions to interact with operating systems, instead of writing code.
Difference between Webhook and API?
In API, One application makes a request to another to receive a response. A Webhook, on the other hand, sends the data (push) to your application as soon as an event occurs.
When we use an API, we can send and receive data from the server but In Webhooks, Data is sent automatically from the server to your application.
APIs are request-based and Webhooks are event-based.
API is like repeatedly calling a shopkeeper to ask that they have stock of a product that you want and Webhooks are like asking a shopkeeper to send the product that you want whenever they have stock in a real-world scenario.
Example of Webhooks
You can use Webhooks to send an alert or notification to slack from Salesforce when your condition is true (We will see this scenario in our next blog).
You can use Webhooks to connect the payment gateway with your email marketing software so that a user gets an email whenever a payment bounces.
You can use webhooks to sync data in other applications.
Examples of APIs
You are familiar with the online ticket booking process. In order to book your tickets, you interact with the main website to access their database like Paytm online ticket booking has direct access to the information of IRCTC using API.
One common usage example is weather data. For example, if you search “weather of (your city name)” on google, you get all the related details regarding current weather and forecast. Google sources this information from a third party. They do so by means of an API.
Conclusion:
Hopefully, this blog has expanded your understanding regarding two common methods to communicate between applications. Now, you have some idea about Webhook and API and how it is different from each other.
Now, it’s time to start doing webhooks. We are going to see how we can integrate salesforce using webhooks with some External Platforms in our next blog.
Check the step-by-step guide to Integrate Salesforce with Slack:
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