Why do APIs/webhooks run before Pipelines?

DanielJohnson2
Qrew Trainee
4 years ago
In a perfect world where legacy users aren't expecting a particular result from the webhook that's in place, I'd agree with you. But I'm liable to have a revolt on my hands if I slow this one down. They click a button, the page refreshes and shows the change. If I put that behind a Pipeline, the page would refresh and load before the Pipeline runs. So, I would end up with a bunch of users asking me why their button doesn't work anymore, and am I sure it's working?

Anyway, thanks Mark!

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Daniel Johnson
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- JimHarrison
  Qrew Champion
  4 years ago
  Hi Daniel,
  
  You're dealing with concurrency. You can do this by setting the filter for the Webhook to be set by the Pipeline.
  1. add a checkbox field (we name ours with "Trigger" in the name and then comment which recipe it triggers).
  2. The last step in the Pipeline is to update the Trigger field for the record.
  3. The filter in the Webhook is set to run when the Trigger field changes from false to true.
  
  additional options:
  make a scheduled process go through and un-check the trigger.
  Form rules to un-check a trigger that is checked are also good, in cases where the Users are doing something before the check box is reset.
  Make another Pipeline that runs after the Webhook when the trigger check box is false.
  
  Problems:
  One record is fine for one change.
  Grid Edit, import from csv, more than one record you have to play with using %repeat on% in the Webhook.
  
  Philosophically the Webhook is the last "Step" in the Pipeline. A lot of testing and planning are recommended in order to understand the results before deploying or the potential for making data salad is exponential.
  
  Good luck, interested to know your results.
  
  Jim Harrison
  Portland, OR
  
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  Jim Harrison
  transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes
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  - DanielJohnson2
    Qrew Trainee
    4 years ago
    Thanks for the reply Jim.
    
    For the full story, there are three buttons that change what we call the Contact Status field that track outreach attempts. Users click the button, and the contact field either changes from what it was to what the button represents, or the contact status stays the same. Either way the button sends data to other fields that have log changes on so we can see all recent outreach attempts. Changes to those fields trigger a webhook. The problem is that some users don't use those buttons and instead change the field manually from the form. So, in order to capture that data in the activity log, I'm setting up a pipeline to fill in the same fields as the button would.
    
    So, what we've decided to do is create the checkbox field and have the button toggle that field to yes. The webhook then runs normally like it does today and the activity is logged. I also added the checkbox field equal to checked as a condition for the webhook. Then there's a pipeline that just toggles that checkbox to unchecked so users can log similar outreach types consecutively. THEN, to cover the case when a user manually changes the Contact Status field from the form to an option we want to track, another pipeline runs and part of the trigger is that the checkbox field is unchecked.
    
    I asked the original question because, if the Pipeline to toggle the checkbox field ran before the webhook, then the webhook wouldn't run based on the added condition. Why add that condition to the webhook? Because the field that displays the activity log is based off the fields the button captures that trigger the webhook. So, if the pipeline to capture the manual change runs without an added condition, it would also trigger the webhook and log the same activity twice.
    
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    Daniel Johnson
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Forum Discussion

Why do APIs/webhooks run before Pipelines?