Contentful Webhook Listener

An HTTP server for listening to Contentful API Webhooks with JavaScript. This provides a Node.js module to create a web server and then emits events for each action (create, save, autoSave, etc) that occurs in Contentful.

Contentful is a content management platform for web applications, mobile apps and connected devices. It allows you to create, edit & manage content in the cloud and publish it anywhere via powerful API. Contentful offers tools for managing editorial teams and enabling cooperation between organizations.

Webhooks in Contentful can notify you or someone else when content has changed by calling a preconfigured HTTP endpoint. This can be used for notifications, static site generators or other forms of post-processing sourced from Contentful.

Setup a custom callback that executes on-demand and it will receive the latest version of the Entry, Asset, or Content Type for each create, save, autoSave, archive, unarchive, or publish event in Contentful. The unpublish and delete events in Contentful send a DeletedEntry or DeletedAsset payload.

See the Contentful Content Management API documentation for more details on their webhooks.

Pair this with ngork for local development, or a server behind a firewall, that responds to actions in Contentful or consider the contentful-webhook-tunnel module which automates the whole process.

If you are looking for a ruby gem with similar functionality, check out contentful-webhook-listener.

Install

npm install contentful-webhook-listener

Usage

var listener = require("contentful-webhook-listener");
var webhook = listener.createServer();
var port = 5000;
 
webhook.on("publish", function (payload) {
 
    console.log(payload);
 
});
 
webhook.listen(port);

listener extends the http module, so all the methods, properties, and events from the http module are available on the listener module.

createServer() accepts a options argument in addition to the standard requestListener function. The options argument accepts a auth property which will enable and enforce HTTP Basic Authentication. The auth property value should be the username and password in <username>:<password> format.

var listener = require("contentful-webhook-listener");
var webhook = listener.createServer({
    "auth": "username:password"
}, function requestListener (request, response) {
 
    console.log("request received");
 
});
var port = 5000;
 
webhook.on("publish", function (payload) {
 
    console.log(payload);
 
});
 
webhook.listen(port, function callback () {
 
    console.log("server is listening");
 
});

Payload Properties

The payload returned has the following properties for the create, save, autoSave, archive, unarchive, or publish events. Sample data from the Contentful API sample space with cats.

{
    "contentType": "cat",
    "fields": {
        "name": {
            "en-US": "Nyan Cat"
        },
        "likes": {
            "en-US": [
                "rainbows",
                "fish"
            ]
        },
        "color": {
            "en-US": "rainbow"
        },
        "bestFriend": {
            "type": "Link",
            "linkType": "Entry",
            "id": "happycat"
        },
        "birthday": {
            "en-US": "2011-04-04T22:00:00+00:00"
        },
        "lives": {
            "en-US": 1337
        },
        "image": {
            "type": "Link",
            "linkType": "Asset",
            "id": "nyancat"
        }
    },
    "id": "cat_nyancat",
    "kind": "Entry",
    "origin": "ContentManagement",
    "space": "cfexampleapi",
    "sys": {
        "space": {
            "sys": { }
        },
        "type": "Entry",
        "contentType": {
            "sys": { }
        },
        "id": "cat_nyancat",
        "revision": 1,
        "createdAt": "2016-10-24T19:48:51.128Z",
        "updatedAt": "2016-11-03T03:12:28.855Z"
    },
    "webhookName": "localhost"
}

The payload has the following properties for the unpublish and delete events:

{
    "contentType": "cat",
    "fields": null,
    "id": "cat_nyancat",
    "kind": "Entry",
    "origin": "ContentManagement",
    "space": "cfexampleapi",
    "sys": {
        "space": {
            "sys": { }
        },
        "type": "DeletedEntry",
        "contentType": {
            "sys": { }
        },
        "id": "cat_nyancat",
        "revision": 2,
        "createdAt": "2016-11-03T03:10:55.676Z",
        "updatedAt": "2016-11-03T03:10:55.676Z",
        "deletedAt": "2016-11-03T03:10:55.676Z"
    },
    "webhookName": "localhost"
}

Todo

• add a command line interface

Changelog

1.0.4 — October 22, 2019

• added files to package.json so only necessary files are included in npm tarball

1.0.3 — October 22, 2019

• upgrade all dependencies

1.0.2 — November 8, 2016

• closer server after emitting an error
• only set contentType when contentType is available

1.0.1 — November 3, 2016

• fixed npm badge in readme
• fixed date of first release in change log

1.0.0 — November 3, 2016

• initial version
• provides functionality similar the Contentful Webhook Listener but with Node.js instead of Ruby

License

contentful-webhook-listener.js is available under the MIT License.