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Signal Sciences Webhooks

TL;DR

To integrate Signal Sciences webhooks with ngrok:

  1. Launch your local webhook. npm start
  2. Launch ngrok. ngrok http 3000
  3. Configure Signal Sciences webhooks with your ngrok URL.
  4. Secure your webhook requests with verification.

This guide covers how to use ngrok to integrate your localhost app with Signal Sciences by using Webhooks. Signal Sciences webhooks can be used to notify an external application whenever specific events occur in your Signal Sciences account.

By integrating ngrok with Signal Sciences, you can:

  • Develop and test Signal Sciences webhooks locally, eliminating the time in deploying your development code to a public environment and setting it up in HTTPS.
  • Inspect and troubleshoot requests from Signal Sciences in real-time via the inspection UI and API.
  • Modify and Replay Signal Sciences Webhook requests with a single click and without spending time reproducing events manually in your Signal Sciences account.
  • Secure your app with Signal Sciences validation provided by ngrok. Invalid requests are blocked by ngrok before reaching your app.

Step 1: Start your app​

For this tutorial, we'll use the sample NodeJS app available on GitHub.

To install this sample, run the following commands in a terminal:

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This will get the project installed locally.

Now you can launch the app by running the following command:

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The app runs by default on port 3000.

You can validate that the app is up and running by visiting http://localhost:3000. The application logs request headers and body in the terminal and responds with a message in the browser.

Step 2: Launch ngrok​

Once your app is running successfully on localhost, let's get it on the internet securely using ngrok!

  1. If you're not an ngrok user yet, just sign up for ngrok for free.

  2. Download the ngrok agent.

  3. Go to the ngrok dashboard and copy your Authtoken.
    Tip: The ngrok agent uses the auth token to log into your account when you start a tunnel.

  4. Start ngrok by running the following command:

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  5. ngrok will display a URL where your localhost application is exposed to the internet (copy this URL for use with Signal Sciences). ngrok agent running

Step 3: Integrate Signal Sciences​

To register a webhook on your Signal Sciences account follow the instructions below:

  1. Access the Signal Sciences Dashboard and sign in using your Signal Sciences account.

  2. On the Dashboard page, select your site from the Sites drop-down menu on the top of the screen, click Site Manage on the top menu, click Site Integrations, and then click Add site integration.

  3. On the Add site integration page, click Generic Webhook.

  4. On the Generic Webhook page, enter the URL provided by the ngrok agent to expose your application to the internet in the Webhook URL field (i.e. https://1a2b-3c4d-5e6f-7g8h-9i0j.ngrok.app). signalsciences URL to Publish

  5. Select All activity and then click Create site integration.

Run Webhooks with Signal Sciences and ngrok​

Signal Sciences sends different request body contents depending on the event that is being triggered. You can trigger new calls from Signal Sciences to your application by following the instructions below.

  1. Access the Signal Sciences Dashboard, sign in, and change your site display name.

    Confirm your localhost app receives an event notification and logs both headers and body in the terminal.

Inspecting requests​

ngrok's Traffic Inspector captures all requests made through your ngrok endpoint to your localhost app. Click on any request to view detailed information about both the request and response.

info

By default, accounts only collect traffic metadata to avoid exposing secrets. You must enable full capture in the Observability section of your account settings to capture complete request and response data.

Use the traffic inspector to:

  • Validate webhook payloads and response data
  • Debug request headers, methods, and status codes
  • Troubleshoot integration issues without adding logging to your app

Replaying requests​

Test your webhook handling code without triggering new events from your service using the Traffic Inspector's replay feature:

  1. Send a test webhook from your service to generate traffic in your Traffic Inspector.

  2. Select the request you want to replay in the traffic inspector.

  3. Choose your replay option:

    • Click Replay to send the exact same request again
    • Select Replay with modifications to edit the request before sending

  4. Modify the request (optional): Edit any part of the original request, such as changing field values in the request body.

  5. Send the request by clicking Replay.

Your local application will receive the replayed request and log the data to the terminal.

Secure webhook requests​

The ngrok signature webhook verification feature allows ngrok to assert that requests from your Signal Sciences webhook are the only traffic allowed to make calls to your localhost app.

Note: This ngrok feature is limited to 500 validations per month on free ngrok accounts. For unlimited, upgrade to Pro or Enterprise.

This is a quick step to add extra protection to your application.

  1. Access the Signal Sciences Dashboard, sign in, click Site Integrations in the Manage menu, and then click on your webhook.

  2. On the Webhook page, click the eye icon to reveal the secret key value and then copy this value.

  3. Create a file named signalsciences_policy.yml, replacing {your webhook secret} with the value you have copied before:

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  4. Restart your ngrok agent by running the command:

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  5. Access the Signal Sciences Dashboard, sign in, and change your site display name.

    Confirm your localhost app receives an event notification and logs both headers and body in the terminal.