Brace for impact— we’re about to go full-tech talk.
In simple terms, webhooks are a way to connect two applications by pushing data from one to another. In our case, the first application is of course Swoogo and the other application is whichever application you want the data to be pushed to (ie. Slack, Marketo, Eloqua, your internal CRM, etc.)
For example, when someone rings the bell at your door, you hear a sound in your living room. Where the doorbell is Swoogo, the person pressing the doorbell is an attendee and the chime in your living room is your second application. The doorbell is connected to the chime via an electric cable and that is our webhook.
While the API checks if new data is available between predefined intervals, webhooks only send the data when a predefined action is triggered. Additionally, APIs are more complex to create vs webhooks are more simple to set up (However, we do have an open API in Swoogo).
An analogy we like to use: imagine you are a pumpkin farmer and grow the most amazing pumpkins that restaurants use for making pumpkin pies. Every morning you wake up to a line of trucks asking if new pumpkins are ready yet?
Request: Are the pumpkins ready yet?
Response: No
This is called polling the database and how the API works, it happens when third-party developers are checking for an update to the data on your servers.
Based on a number of factors, like weather, temperature, and pests, your pumpkins will be ready at a different time each year. It would make more sense to make this event-based. The restaurants could all give you their phone numbers and as soon as your pumpkins are ready, you can give them a call for them to come to pick up their order. The restaurants must specify in advance exactly what they want.
That is how webhooks work, you use a URL to connect two platforms (in this example, the phone number) and then based on certain triggers, the data is sent when it’s available.
To set up webhooks you will need a webhook URL, which needs to be added on Swoogo. This URL is used by Swoogo to pass data to your application (Slack, Internal CRM, third-party tool, Excel, Marketo, etc.)
If your application does not have this URL, you can visit Zapier.com or IFTTT.com to check if the application you’re using is listed.
Webhook Form Post
Webhook form post is an option where you can fill out a form in another application using webhooks like Eloqua, Survey Monkey, Google Forms, etc., and is very straightforward.
1) Where can I find Swoogo’s Webhook Endpoints?
We have documentation to help you out with that.
2) How can I decide if I want Swoogo’s Open API vs Webhook?
If you want the data to be more real-time and instant we recommend using webhook.
If you do not know how to create API with Swoogo or do not have access to a developer, we recommend using webhook
If we already have an integration then we would recommend using the pre-built integration
3) Can I have multiple webhooks with the same URL?
No, you can create multiple webhooks but the URL has to be different for each one of them. For example––one for sending data to Slack when someone cancels and the second one for sending all new registrations to an excel sheet
4) Can I send data back to Swoogo to update the registrant details?
Yes, you can do this by using an Update a registrant API call. It is a complex setup and would need an experienced developer from your side to build it out. It’s relatively easier when done via a webhook, but doing it with an Open API adds more complexity to it.