Discussions

Hey y’all. So I’m trying to build this small eCommerce site for a uni side project (slash maybe actual business if I don’t totally bomb it), and I’m using Easyship’s API to handle shipping stuff rates, labels, tracking, the usual. I’ve done some basic API stuff before, but this is kinda next-level for me and I’m seriously stuck on webhooks.

Like, I get the idea send me a notification when a shipping status changes, cool. But then you start reading the docs and suddenly it’s payloads and endpoints and secret hashes and now I’m stress eating crackers at 2AM instead of finishing my code.

I’ve got this flow: user places order → I generate a shipping label → I want to get updates when the order is delivered, stuck, returned, etc. I tried setting up the webhook URL on my local server using ngrok, but half the time I don’t even know if it’s firing. Nothing shows in my logs. Also, the Easyship dashboard says the webhook was “delivered” but I got no data on my end. Am I missing something stupid??

Alsooo and maybe this is off-topic but whatever it’s midterm season and I’m drowning. Group project deadlines, API errors, and now one of my profs wants an SOP for some exchange thing, which feels like the absolute worst timing. I almost caved and looked for an SOP writing service UAE just to survive this week, but I’m trying not to sell my soul for a couple hundred words lol. Anyone else juggling code and essays and applications and slowly losing it??

Anyway back to webhooks if anyone has a super beginner-friendly tutorial or even just a sanity check, I’d appreciate it. Like:

How do I test these properly without deploying to prod?

Do I need to set headers or verify the request somehow?

What’s the best way to debug if nothing is hitting my server?

Honestly feel like once I get this part sorted, the rest will fall into place. I’ve already got most of the checkout and shipping options working, and Easyship seems dope so far it is just this webhook stuff that’s making me doubt my life choices.

If anyone’s got time to drop some advice, a code snippet, or just say “yo I went through this too,” I’d seriously love that. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one struggling, but then I remember everyone’s kinda winging it in their own way

Appreciate you all. Peace