Contentful webhook server

Webhooks in Contentful notify you when content in your space has changed.

Contentful webhook server is a lightweight server to handle these notifications:

• handles incoming Contentful webhook HTTP requests
• emits events for all Contentful webhook topics to allow easy webhook handling
• supports username/password authentication
• supports all default node HTTP server options

Installation

$ npm install contentful-webhook-server

Quick example

// Create webhook server
var server = require('contentful-webhook-server')({
  path: '/',
  username: 'user',
  password: 'pass'
});
 
// Attach handlers to Contentful webhooks
server.on('ContentManagement.ContentType.publish', function(req){
  console.log('A content type was published!');
});
 
// Start listening for requests on port 3000
server.listen(3000, function(){
  console.log('Contentful webhook server running on port ' + 3000)
});
 

Configuration

You can pass a configuration object when instantiating the server:

// Create webhook server
var server = require('contentful-webhook-server')({
  path: '/',
  username: 'user',
  password: 'pass'
});

where:

• path: the path you want the server to listen on, default: '/'
• username: the username you expect the request to contain, default: ''
• password: the password you expect the request to contain, default: ''

So to start a server on localhost:3000 without authentication, you can:

// Create server with default options
var server = require('contentful-webhook-server')();
 
// Start listening for requests on port 3000
server.listen(3000, function(){
  console.log('Contentful webhook server running on port ' + 3000)
});

and to start a server on localhost:3000/webhooks with authentication, you can:

// Create server with default options
var server = require('contentful-webhook-server')({
  path: '/webhooks',
  username: 'user',
  password: 'pass'
});
 
// Start listening for requests on port 3000
server.listen(3000, function(){
  console.log('Contentful webhook server running on port ' + 3000)
});

Handling incoming webhook requests

The server emits incoming Contentful webhook topics as event, so you can:

server.on('ContentManagement.ContentType.publish', function(req){
  console.log('A content type was published!');
});
 
server.on('ContentManagement.ContentType.unpublish', function(req){
  console.log('A content type was unpublished!');
});
 
server.on('ContentManagement.Entry.publish', function(req){
  console.log('An entry was published!');
});
 
server.on('ContentManagement.Entry.unpublish', function(req){
  console.log('An entry was unpublished!');
});
 
server.on('ContentManagement.Asset.publish', function(req){
  console.log('An asset was published!');
});
 
server.on('ContentManagement.Asset.unpublish', function(req){
  console.log('An asset was unpublished!');
});

This module does not make any assumptions about your application and does NOT attempt to parse or extract the contents of the request.

Instead it passes the request to your handler(s) so you can process (or ignore) the contents of the incoming message from within your handler(s).

Special wildcard event

The server emits a special wildcard event too in case you want to listen to all events in one go:

 
// Handler for all successful requests
// Is not emitted when an error occurs
server.on('ContentManagement.*', function(topic, req){
 
  // topic is available as string
  // => e.g. ContentManagement.Asset.unpublish
  console.log('Request came in for: ' + topic);
});

This event is only emitted on successful requests, not on errors

Handling errors and invalid requests

When an invalid request comes in, a ContentManagement.error event is emitted:

// Handle errors
server.on('ContentManagement.error', function(err, req){
  console.log(err);
});

Simulating a request using curl

If you want to try out your server during development, you can simulate a request without credentials using cUrl:

$ curl -X POST --header "X-Contentful-Topic: ContentManagement.Entry.publish" localhost:3000

and simulate requests with authentication like this:

$ curl -X POST -u user:pass --header "X-Contentful-Topic: ContentManagement.Entry.publish" localhost:3000

Enabling webhooks in Contentful

To enable webhooks in your Contentful space, go to your space settings and fill in the options you specified in your server configuration:

As soon as you save the webhook in Contentful, your server will start receiving notifications.

Example

A working example is included here.

License

MIT

Change log

1.2.0

• Added ability to mount as middleware

1.1.0

• Added working example
• Updated documentation

1.0.0

• Added authentication support
• Updated documentation

0.2.0

• Added unit tests
• Updated documentation

0.1.0

• Initial version