3 ms·

The headline got my attention. I'm looking for a standard for subscribeable notifications / callbacks to update users of data changes in an API. Bonus point for

The headline got my attention. I'm looking for a standard for subscribeable notifications / callbacks to update users of data changes in an API. Bonus point for federated. But server to server, not server to client. Double bonus points for connecting to consumer services like Zapier or IFTTT. I'm planning to use WebSub and/or RSS, but on the look out for others. Any pointers?

MayeulC 4y ago
That use-case sounds a bit similar to Webmentions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webmention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webmention See also... The See also section in that article :) You say it would be server to server, but are both publicly reachable?
- afandian 4y ago
  We're running an API, we want to say to users e.g. "we finished processing your submission" or "this API resource changed". And offer pull (e.g. RSS) and push flavour. > You say it would be server to server, but are both publicly reachable? So yes, the user would have to run a public server. But only for practical reasons, otherwise how can you push. Webmention isn't quite it, we're notifying about our own API Resources. Websub (FKA PubSubHubub) does. It just doesn't seem to be widely adopted for some reason.
kevincox 4y ago
WebSub + RSS/Atom is a good option for relatively slowly changing data. (Maybe at most a couple of times an hour). It is nice because it is opt-in and an enhancement on the regular polling API. Using WebSub or UnifiedPush would technically very similar but you need a way for the client to pass you the subscription information. WebSub has a standard discovery process to manage this.
- afandian 4y ago
  The WebSub spec looks disarmingly simple but also complete for everything I can think of. I've not yet tried to implement it, but I'm waiting for the catch! Thanks for the confirmation.

3 ms·

The headline got my attention. I'm looking for a standard for subscribeable notifications / callbacks to update users of data changes in an API. Bonus point for

by afandian 4y ago

MayeulC 4y ago
That use-case sounds a bit similar to Webmentions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webmention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webmention See also... The See also section in that article :) You say it would be server to server, but are both publicly reachable?
- afandian 4y ago
  We're running an API, we want to say to users e.g. "we finished processing your submission" or "this API resource changed". And offer pull (e.g. RSS) and push flavour. > You say it would be server to server, but are both publicly reachable? So yes, the user would have to run a public server. But only for practical reasons, otherwise how can you push. Webmention isn't quite it, we're notifying about our own API Resources. Websub (FKA PubSubHubub) does. It just doesn't seem to be widely adopted for some reason.
kevincox 4y ago
WebSub + RSS/Atom is a good option for relatively slowly changing data. (Maybe at most a couple of times an hour). It is nice because it is opt-in and an enhancement on the regular polling API. Using WebSub or UnifiedPush would technically very similar but you need a way for the client to pass you the subscription information. WebSub has a standard discovery process to manage this.
- afandian 4y ago
  The WebSub spec looks disarmingly simple but also complete for everything I can think of. I've not yet tried to implement it, but I'm waiting for the catch! Thanks for the confirmation.