A webhook is a method that allows a web application or service to send near real-time information to another web service. The communication is triggered by a specific event or events that you define. Rather than repeatedly checking for updates, the system delivers a notification as soon as the triggering event occurs.
In ArcGIS Online, webhooks can be created for hosted feature layers, hosted feature layer views, and hosted tables. These webhooks send payloads to a webhook receiver based on defined event triggers. The receiver is configured to perform automated actions such as notifying a predefined list of recipients about the edits, exporting the information about the edits to an external app to create a report of changes, or run quality control scripts on the edited data.
Components of this communication channel are as follows:
- Event trigger—Each event trigger specifies the API operations, performed on the item's source feature service, that invoke the webhook. When a user performs an operation that was specified as an event trigger, the webhook delivers that information (as a payload) to the webhook receiver. You specify the triggers when you create a webhook. See Feature layer event triggers for the specific event triggers you can set.
- Payload—The payload contains the information appropriate to the triggering event. See Feature layer webhook payloads for information about what is included in a payload.
- Webhook receiver—The webhook receiver accepts the payload and sends information to a predefined list of recipients (users or apps). For example, it can send an email or a text message notifying the user that the triggering event occurred, send the information about the triggering event to an external database for archiving, or run a script on the data based on the triggering event that occurred.
You can use third-party web service receivers or custom web services for webhook receivers. You must configure webhook receivers to communicate over an HTTPS connection to receive payloads, and your ArcGIS Online organization must be able to access the receivers before you add a webhook to an item. The webhook receiver is accessed through the payload URL that you specify when you create the webhook.
The webhook receiver is configured outside ArcGIS Online. After you configure the receiver, you can create a webhook.
Requirements
Before you can create a webhook for a hosted feature layer, view, or table, the item must meet the following requirements:
- The Keep track of changes to the data (add, update, delete features) setting must be enabled.
- The item cannot be in the recycle bin.
Each item can have up to 10 webhooks.
Webhook creation
The types of organization members who can create and manage webhooks for hosted feature layers, hosted feature layer views, and hosted tables are listed in the following table along with information about where they can manage webhooks.
| Type of organization member | Where webhooks can be managed |
|---|---|
Members of the default administrator role or members of a custom role that has the set of administrative privileges to create and manage webhooks. |
|
Owners of the item |
|
Members of a shared update group with which the item has been shared | The Settings tab of a hosted feature layer, view, or table's item page—The group member can create and manage webhooks for the specific item. |
Follow the instructions appropriate to your role in the organization to create a webhook:
- Organization administrator
- Item owner or member of a shared update group with which the item is shared