sitedata/webhook_expressjs

Just a simple ExpressJS app that opens up a server on localhost:3050 and uses the localtunnel API to automatically create a publicly accessible tunnel link to the app. It was created as a way to accept incoming webhooks on your local machine as an alternative to creating Microsoft PowerAutomate Flows or relying on something like RequestBin & Pipedream.

webhook_expressjs

Just a simple ExpressJS app that opens up a server on localhost:3050 and uses the localtunnel API to automatically create a publicly accessible tunnel link to the app. It was created as a way to accept incoming webhooks on your local machine as an alternative to creating Microsoft PowerAutomate Flows or relying on something like RequestBin & Pipedream.

Preview

Installation

Machine Prerequisites

• Git https://git-scm.com/ (To pull the code from the Github Repository)
• Node https://nodejs.org/en/download/ (To host/run the app on your local machine)

Install Steps

1. Navigate into a folder of your choice.
2. Open your terminal of choice in the directory (on Windows, you can simply shift + right-click and select "Open Powershell Window Here")
3. Execute git clone https://github.com/MStoltzfus/webhook_expressjs/
4. Navigate to newly created folder using cd webhook_expressjs
5. Execute npm install (This will download the node packages that this project depends on to run; failing to do this will result in module errors when you attempt to launch the app in the next step)
6. Execute npm start (launches the Express.JS app)

Connection URLs for both local and public connections to the app will be displayed upon successful launch of the app in your console.

Usage options

The following URL endpoints are available

URL Route	HTTP Verb	Description
"/"	GET	Gives a simple text response
"/"	POST	Sends an immediate response to a request with a JSON payload and console logs the parsed JSON to the console in which the app is running
"/webhook"	GET	Gives a simple text response
"/webhook"	POST	Sends an immediate response to a request with a JSON payload and console logs the parsed JSON to the console in which the app is running
"/url"	GET	Responds with the public localtunnel URL (implemented to solve the first-world problem of not wanting to scroll all the way to the top of the console to get it)

App Package Dependencies

• Access to the internet to establish a localtunnel connection.
• npm package express (base framework for the app)
• npm package localtunnel (API used to automatically create a tunnel to application at launch)
• npm package moment (used to display a pretty timestamp when a POST request is made)
• npm package nodemon (dev dependency - hot reloads the Node server when editing the code)

Credits

Microsoft PowerAutomate and PipeDream bugs which gave me the motivation to learn a new backend framework so I could stop relying on them for testing simple webhooks.