Webhook Testing | What it is, Types & How to Perform?

Making sure that all the front-end functionalities of your software application work perfectly is not the only aspect that we should take care of as testers. Because the back end of your software product is the base of everything, this is why webhook testing is very important. 

Webhook Testing is an important aspect of software testing and it helps to ensure effective communication with other applications. Through this article, we are going to discuss what webhook testing is, the types of webhook testing, how to perform a webhook test using Testsigma, and some of the well-known webhook testing tools.

What is Webhook Testing?

Webhook Testing is the process of verifying the functionality and reliability of webhooks. In case you are wondering what a webhook is, a webhook is a personalized notification that gets activated or triggered by specific events such as user registrations, changes to database records, security alerts, new messages, IoT device triggers, etc. When those events occur, a message is sent to a web server (which is not the one that is hosted for the original web page) using an HTTP POST request. This message may contain the latest real-time data or updates related to the triggered event.

Under webhook testing, testers ensure that the webhook is configured correctly, whether it sends and receives data as expected, and whether it handles various scenarios smoothly such as errors and timeouts. Webhook testing is important for developers to make sure that the respective integrations are correctly done and that the data flow goes between systems with no issues.

Types of Webhook Testing

Webhook testing can be divided into four different types. Let’s get to know what they are and why they are so important when ensuring system integration.

Unit Testing Webhooks for Logic Errors

In this type of webhook testing, testers mainly focus on verifying the individual components or units of the webhook’s logic. Developers check whether each part of the webhook’s code behaves as expected while catching errors or bugs that may occur within the logic of the webhook. This makes sure that the basic components of the webhook work correctly and identifies the potential issues that can occur at the earliest in the software development lifecycle.

Functional Testing of Webhook Workflows

In this type of webhook testing, testers verify the entire workflow’s end-to-end functionality. Usually, testers trigger the webhook by executing the respective events, and then they verify whether all the individual tasks starting from the trigger initiation to the response generation, work as expected with no issues. This type of testing ensures that the webhook not only performs individual tasks correctly but also that it integrates smoothly.

Load Testing Webhooks for Resilience

This sort of webhook testing deals with how a webhook works under high user traffic. There, the testers create a lot of events to evaluate the webhook’s ability to handle such massive loads while checking that the webhook remains responsive and doesn’t produce errors or any other types of issues even during the high-usage periods. This type of testing is very important when it comes to finding the performance bottlenecks in the software systems, scalability concerns, and resource limitations such as memory and disc limitations specifically in the performance of specific webhooks.

Profiling Webhooks for Performance Improvements

Under profiling webhooks for performance improvements, testers evaluate the webhooks’ performance and identify all the areas in which the performance should be improved. In addition to that, the testers check different elements of the webhook such as its response time, resource utilization, etc. Developers can identify performance bottlenecks and optimize the code to improve overall efficiency while designing a more reliable webhook by profiling code.

How to Test Webhooks?

For some QA engineers, webhook testing can be quite new thus, they might not know how to test webhooks exactly. 

Testing Webhook via Automated testing tools

Automated testing tools evaluate webhooks by simulating triggering events, verifying valid payload structure, and validating HTTP responses and status codes. These tools test proper header handling, and endpoint accessibility, and test retry mechanisms of webhooks. Security checks, including SSL/TLS validation, are performed, while testing also covers timeout handling, redundancy, and failover mechanisms. Apart from that –  logging, error handling, and concurrency testing help to a comprehensive assessment of the application.

Testing Webhook Code Locally

When testing webhook code locally, developers create a separate test environment on their local machines, and with that, they can simulate webhook events and observe how the code responds. First of all, developers set up a testing server to expose their created local server to the internet temporarily. Then they trigger events and monitor the behavior of the webhook code while debugging the issues if there are any. Testing webhook code locally is very important when it comes to executing efficient and fast iterations during the development phase while ensuring that the webhook works correctly before deploying it to the production environments.

Testing Webhook Delivery

When testing webhook delivery, testers validate the end-to-end process of delivering webhook payloads. There, they confirm that the webhook is correctly configured to receive and process data. Also, they ensure that the sender can deliver payloads to the configured endpoint with no issues. While testing webhook delivery, testers inspect webhook payloads, verify the HTTP status codes, and analyze response messages using tools. This type of testing helps identify and address any issues related to the webhook’s communication and data transfer tasks while ensuring reliable and timely delivery of information between systems.

Best Webhooks Testing Tools

Even though the term “webhook testing” is quite new to some people, there are a lot of webhook testing tools in the software quality industry nowadays. Let’s get to know some of the well-known webhook testing tools in the QA field.

PostBin

PostBin provides users with a publicly accessible endpoint where webhook payloads can be sent to inspect. Developers can observe and analyze the data sent by webhooks, helping to validate the correctness of the payloads and troubleshoot any issues. PostBin is very useful during the development and debugging phases. While supporting multiple data formats, PostBin handles webhook payloads with flexibility.

RequestBin

RequestBin is a tool that allows developers to create a public endpoint to inspect HTTP requests and webhook payloads. It provides a visual representation of the data received and makes it easy to identify any errors in the payloads. RequestBin supports both HTTP and HTTPS, and it is a valuable tool for webhook testing and debugging. One of the best benefits of the RequestBin tool is its integration capabilities with third-party tools which helps to work with a lot of development and testing frameworks. Its ability to work with both HTTP and HTTPS protocols makes it easier for developers to work with different development environments.

Beeceptor

Beeceptor is a tool that lets users create custom endpoints to capture, inspect, and debug HTTP requests and webhooks. It offers features such as request logging, response customization, and the ability to simulate different HTTP status codes. Preceptor is very important for testing various aspects of webhook functionality and it makes sure that the integration works as expected. Other than webhook testing, it also helps to prepare applications to simulate real-world scenarios. Beeceptor’s collaborative features are one of the key points which add value to that too and it helps the development teams to share and collaborate on debugging sessions very easily.

Ngrok

Ngrok is a tool that creates secure tunnels to localhost, making local web servers accessible over the internet. It is very useful for testing webhooks locally by exposing a local server to a public URL. Ngrok allows developers to receive real payloads in their local environment before deploying to production. This tool can handle multiple different connections and provide real-time analytics and it helps in many ways when it comes to monitoring, controlling and optimizing webhook performance.

HTTPie

   is a command-line tool that can be used to test webhooks easily. It can be also used for documentation, debugging purposes and to explore dry runs as well. It gives transparency when it comes to parameters sent and the responses that can be received while supporting basic authentication methods. HTTPie is used not only for automation but also to enhance the development workflow by integrating it into CI/CD pipelines. Additionally, it allows the developers to automate and integrate HTTPie into their testing frameworks and development workflows as well.

Conclusion

Knowing how to perform webhook testing is very important when it comes to ensuring reliable communication between web applications. With the support of various webhook testing methods and testing tools, both developers and testers can identify issues in the webhooks and address them accordingly at the earliest. Ultimately, it helps the whole software development team to complete a well-functioning software product.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I test webhooks in Postman?

Testing webhooks using Postman is possible. Even though Postman is traditionally used for testing APIs, it provides features for webhook testing as well. Through Postman, you can create and send HTTP requests to simulate webhook events. Also, it helps to inspect the responses and validate the behavior of your webhook. Postman offers a comprehensive environment for developers to evaluate and debug their integrations.

What is the difference between API and webhook?

The primary difference between an API and a webhook is the way they communicate between software systems. An API is a set of protocols and tools that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. However, a webhook is a user-defined HTTP POST call that should be triggered by specific events. While APIs enable communication instances between systems, webhooks are more about notifications triggered by specific events.