Breaking Down What The Hell A Webhook Is

What’s a web hook?

You want salt and pepper but you can’t get it until you go and meet that crazy looking neighbor. You go there but either she isn’t around or doesn’t have any to give you. You’ll be angry and frustrated even kicking your foot on a rock.

But, what if you don’t have to go out there and knock or even ask? Each time you buy the salt and pepper it just automatically gets punted over? You don’t have to start begging, it’s already made for you. You just go to your door and pick it up.

That’s exactly how webhooks work.

It’s simply just like a vehicle that is transmitting data from one server to the next. It doesn’t have to ask you or meet you, it just communicates with the other endpoint.

It’s just how your favorite app talks to each other. It’s how PayPal tells your accounting app when your clients pay you, and how WooCommerce can notify you about new orders in Slack.

They are automated messages sent when something happens.. When you make a bank purchase or order online.

When do you use them?

Technology has improved, the world has changed and you have to scale up. Understanding how data is being transmitted from one server to another by itself is amazing. You’ll save a shitload of time and let the bot do its work.

The most common use of web hooks is typically on forms when you’re moving contact data from one database to the next.

So let’s say, for example, I have a WordPress website built with an elementor form and I want to send the form data, like whatever they submitted over to my high level CRM.

Well, you can go into Zapier, right?

Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your apps and services. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration. 

You want to move them from one database to another but you don’t want to stop there. You want to test them out, try making your own. You can’t use what doesn’t work for business.

I mean, you could always build your own API

But, hey, for my audience, most of you guys barely know what an API is.

Why are they important?

They’re important because they help in moving data back and forth.. So, I’m going to teach you guys how to leverage Zapier and webhooks for moving data back and forth between those platforms.

That’s the most commonly used way to move data back and forth. Most APIs are built with the ability to webhook data back and forth. So in Zapier, they’ve already built this application for you so the application you’re going to be using is called webhooks by Zapier. 

That’s where they spin up the web hook for you. And they basically can bring those endpoints from one location to another. And it gives you all the variables so when you’re developing an API and you’re trying to move information from one database to the next, it probably looks magical.

But on your website, if you have a name, email, phone number, blah blah blah, the rows in that database, they’re going to have different titles, right?

They’re going to have different Column names, whatever. Most databases, those fields are labeled something else so they don’t directly talk to each other. And some are even written in different languages, right?

So what a web hook does is it takes all of those fields and it gives you variables, right? So name is a variable, email is a variable, phone is a variable 

How much did you earn this year? All variables.

So over here in HighLevel, they have their own variable for name, email, phone number. So what a webhook does it takes all that data with all those variables, and it allows you to map those variables endpoint to endpoint.

That’s what they’re called in an API.

Endpoint A to Endpoint B and then map those variables. That way, when it web hooks, the data over, name on the left matches name on right. Email on the left matches, email on the right. Phone on the left matches, phone on the right.

Conclusion..

A webhook is  the ability to literally send information from endpoint A to endpoint B, which gives you the ability to map endpoint A to the endpoint and the database B to send the data back and forth

I know that might be a little technical. I have some videos where I’m actually setting up some live web hooks and examples so make sure you guys check out the channel, go to the Automation goat series. 

You’ll be able to find those in there for tutorials on how to use them on your funnels and once you actually see them in action, it will make more sense. 

If you want more automation tips make sure to subscribe or join my Facebook group and ask your questions on a live session!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/automationgoat

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