Company
Date Published
Author
Adams Adebayo
Word count
1466
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

The text provides an overview of webhooks, emphasizing their role in modern web development as a real-time, event-driven communication tool between applications. This method contrasts with traditional techniques like polling, messaging queues, and remote procedure calls, which were less efficient and often involved delays and increased complexity. Webhooks function by enabling servers to send HTTP POST requests to clients upon specific events, thus reducing unnecessary network traffic and improving system efficiency by eliminating the need for clients to constantly request updates. This approach is likened to reverse APIs, as it reverses the typical client-server communication model by allowing servers to push data to clients in near real-time. The use of webhooks is highlighted as transformative for creating dynamic applications, providing instant notifications, streamlining workflows, and enhancing system performance across various use cases, such as e-commerce and software deployment.