Webhook Setup Guide

Webhooks enable real-time communication between Brevo and your Tajo loyalty platform. This guide walks you through the complete setup process.

Overview

Webhooks allow Brevo to automatically notify your Tajo application when specific events occur, such as:

  • Email events: Delivered, opened, clicked, bounced
  • SMS events: Sent, delivered, failed, replied
  • Contact events: Created, updated, unsubscribed
  • Campaign events: Started, completed, paused

Prerequisites

Before setting up webhooks, ensure you have:

  • HTTPS endpoint for receiving webhooks (SSL required)
  • Webhook secret for signature verification
  • Server environment capable of handling HTTP POST requests
  • Brevo account with webhook access permissions

Step 1: Prepare Your Webhook Endpoint

Create Webhook Handler

import express from 'express';
import crypto from 'crypto';
import { TajoLoyaltyService } from './loyalty-service.js';
const app = express();
const loyaltyService = new TajoLoyaltyService();
// Middleware to capture raw body for signature verification
app.use('/webhooks/brevo', express.raw({
type: 'application/json',
limit: '10mb'
}));
// Main webhook handler
app.post('/webhooks/brevo', async (req, res) => {
try {
// Verify webhook signature
const signature = req.headers['x-brevo-signature'];
if (!verifyWebhookSignature(req.body, signature)) {
console.warn('Invalid webhook signature received');
return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Unauthorized: Invalid signature' });
}
// Parse webhook payload
const event = JSON.parse(req.body.toString());
console.log('Received webhook event:', event.event, event.email);
// Route to appropriate handler
await handleWebhookEvent(event);
// Respond quickly (Brevo expects response within 5 seconds)
res.status(200).json({
success: true,
eventId: event['message-id'],
timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
});
} catch (error) {
console.error('Webhook processing error:', error);
res.status(500).json({
error: 'Internal server error',
message: error.message
});
}
});
// Signature verification function
function verifyWebhookSignature(payload, signature) {
if (!process.env.BREVO_WEBHOOK_SECRET || !signature) {
return false;
}
const expectedSignature = crypto
.createHmac('sha256', process.env.BREVO_WEBHOOK_SECRET)
.update(payload)
.digest('hex');
return crypto.timingSafeEqual(
Buffer.from(signature.replace('sha256=', ''), 'hex'),
Buffer.from(expectedSignature, 'hex')
);
}
// Event router
async function handleWebhookEvent(event) {
switch (event.event) {
// Email events
case 'delivered':
await handleEmailDelivered(event);
break;
case 'opened':
await handleEmailOpened(event);
break;
case 'clicked':
await handleEmailClicked(event);
break;
case 'bounced':
case 'hard_bounced':
await handleEmailBounced(event);
break;
case 'spam':
await handleEmailSpam(event);
break;
case 'unsubscribed':
await handleEmailUnsubscribed(event);
break;
// SMS events
case 'sms_delivered':
await handleSMSDelivered(event);
break;
case 'sms_failed':
await handleSMSFailed(event);
break;
case 'sms_reply':
await handleSMSReply(event);
break;
// Contact events
case 'contact_created':
await handleContactCreated(event);
break;
case 'contact_updated':
await handleContactUpdated(event);
break;
case 'list_addition':
await handleListAddition(event);
break;
default:
console.warn('Unhandled webhook event:', event.event);
}
}

Email Event Handlers

// Handle email delivery confirmation
async function handleEmailDelivered(event) {
const customerEmail = event.email;
const messageId = event['message-id'];
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerEngagement(customerEmail, {
lastEmailDelivered: new Date(),
emailDeliveryRate: 'increment'
});
// Log for analytics
console.log(`Email delivered to ${customerEmail}: ${messageId}`);
}
// Handle email opens (key engagement metric)
async function handleEmailOpened(event) {
const customerEmail = event.email;
const subject = event.subject;
const timestamp = new Date(event.ts * 1000);
// Update customer engagement score
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerEngagement(customerEmail, {
lastEmailOpened: timestamp,
emailOpenRate: 'increment',
engagementScore: 'increase'
});
// Track loyalty campaign engagement
if (event.tag?.includes('loyalty')) {
await loyaltyService.trackLoyaltyEngagement(customerEmail, {
event: 'email_opened',
campaign: extractCampaignFromSubject(subject),
timestamp: timestamp
});
}
console.log(`Email opened by ${customerEmail}: "${subject}"`);
}
// Handle email clicks (high-value engagement)
async function handleEmailClicked(event) {
const customerEmail = event.email;
const clickedUrl = event.link;
const timestamp = new Date(event.ts * 1000);
// High-value engagement - boost customer score
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerEngagement(customerEmail, {
lastEmailClicked: timestamp,
emailClickRate: 'increment',
engagementScore: 'boost'
});
// Track reward page visits
if (clickedUrl.includes('/rewards') || clickedUrl.includes('/loyalty')) {
await loyaltyService.trackEvent(customerEmail, 'Rewards Page Visited', {
source: 'email',
referrer_url: clickedUrl,
timestamp: timestamp
});
}
console.log(`Email link clicked by ${customerEmail}: ${clickedUrl}`);
}
// Handle email bounces (delivery issues)
async function handleEmailBounced(event) {
const customerEmail = event.email;
const bounceReason = event.reason;
const bounceType = event.event; // 'bounced' or 'hard_bounced'
if (bounceType === 'hard_bounced') {
// Hard bounce - email address invalid
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerStatus(customerEmail, {
emailStatus: 'invalid',
emailBounced: true,
bounceReason: bounceReason,
lastBounce: new Date()
});
// Consider switching to SMS for critical notifications
await loyaltyService.suggestAlternativeChannel(customerEmail, 'sms');
} else {
// Soft bounce - temporary issue
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerEngagement(customerEmail, {
emailBounceCount: 'increment',
lastBounce: new Date()
});
}
console.warn(`Email bounced for ${customerEmail}: ${bounceReason}`);
}
// Handle spam reports (reputation management)
async function handleEmailSpam(event) {
const customerEmail = event.email;
// Mark customer as unengaged to prevent future spam reports
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerStatus(customerEmail, {
emailStatus: 'spam_reported',
marketingEnabled: false,
lastSpamReport: new Date()
});
// Alert marketing team for review
await loyaltyService.alertMarketing('spam_report', {
email: customerEmail,
campaign: event.tag
});
console.warn(`Spam reported by ${customerEmail}`);
}

SMS Event Handlers

// Handle SMS delivery confirmation
async function handleSMSDelivered(event) {
const customerPhone = event.phone;
const messageId = event['message-id'];
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerEngagement(customerPhone, {
lastSMSDelivered: new Date(),
smsDeliveryRate: 'increment'
});
console.log(`SMS delivered to ${customerPhone}: ${messageId}`);
}
// Handle SMS failures
async function handleSMSFailed(event) {
const customerPhone = event.phone;
const failureReason = event.reason;
await loyaltyService.updateCustomerStatus(customerPhone, {
smsStatus: 'failed',
smsFailureReason: failureReason,
lastSMSFailure: new Date()
});
// If SMS fails, consider email as alternative
const customer = await loyaltyService.getCustomerByPhone(customerPhone);
if (customer?.email) {
await loyaltyService.suggestAlternativeChannel(customer.email, 'email');
}
console.warn(`SMS failed for ${customerPhone}: ${failureReason}`);
}
// Handle SMS replies (two-way communication)
async function handleSMSReply(event) {
const customerPhone = event.phone;
const replyText = event.text.toLowerCase().trim();
// Process common replies
if (replyText === 'stop' || replyText === 'unsubscribe') {
await loyaltyService.unsubscribeFromSMS(customerPhone);
} else if (replyText === 'help' || replyText === 'info') {
await loyaltyService.sendSMSHelp(customerPhone);
} else {
// Forward to customer service
await loyaltyService.forwardSMSToSupport(customerPhone, replyText);
}
console.log(`SMS reply from ${customerPhone}: "${replyText}"`);
}

Step 2: Configure Webhook in Brevo

Via Brevo Dashboard

  1. Log into Brevo account
  2. Navigate to Developers > Webhooks
  3. Click “Add a new webhook”
  4. Configure webhook settings:
{
"url": "https://your-tajo-domain.com/webhooks/brevo",
"description": "Tajo Loyalty Platform Integration",
"events": [
"delivered",
"opened",
"clicked",
"bounced",
"hard_bounced",
"spam",
"unsubscribed",
"sms_delivered",
"sms_failed",
"sms_reply",
"contact_created",
"contact_updated"
]
}

Via API

import { WebhooksApi } from '@brevo/brevo-js';
async function createWebhook() {
const webhooksApi = new WebhooksApi();
const createWebhook = {
url: 'https://your-tajo-domain.com/webhooks/brevo',
description: 'Tajo Loyalty Platform Integration',
events: [
'delivered',
'opened',
'clicked',
'bounced',
'hard_bounced',
'spam',
'unsubscribed',
'sms_delivered',
'sms_failed',
'sms_reply',
'contact_created',
'contact_updated'
]
};
try {
const response = await webhooksApi.createWebhook(createWebhook);
console.log('Webhook created successfully:', response.id);
return response;
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error creating webhook:', error);
throw error;
}
}

Step 3: Security Implementation

Environment Variables

Terminal window
# .env file
BREVO_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your-super-secure-webhook-secret-here
BREVO_API_KEY=xkeysib-your-api-key-here
WEBHOOK_RATE_LIMIT=1000
WEBHOOK_TIMEOUT=5000

Rate Limiting

import rateLimit from 'express-rate-limit';
const webhookLimiter = rateLimit({
windowMs: 15 * 60 * 1000, // 15 minutes
max: 1000, // Limit each IP to 1000 requests per windowMs
message: 'Too many webhook requests from this IP',
standardHeaders: true,
legacyHeaders: false,
});
app.use('/webhooks/brevo', webhookLimiter);

IP Whitelist (Optional)

const brevoIPs = [
'185.41.28.0/24',
'185.41.29.0/24',
'217.182.196.0/24'
];
function isBrevoIP(ip) {
// Implement IP range checking
return brevoIPs.some(range => ipInRange(ip, range));
}
app.use('/webhooks/brevo', (req, res, next) => {
const clientIP = req.ip || req.connection.remoteAddress;
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production' && !isBrevoIP(clientIP)) {
return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Forbidden: Invalid source IP' });
}
next();
});

Step 4: Testing Webhooks

Test Webhook Handler

// Test endpoint for webhook verification
app.post('/webhooks/brevo/test', (req, res) => {
const testEvent = {
event: 'test',
'message-id': 'test-message-id',
timestamp: Date.now() / 1000,
tags: ['test', 'loyalty']
};
console.log('Test webhook received:', testEvent);
res.status(200).json({
success: true,
message: 'Test webhook processed successfully',
receivedAt: new Date().toISOString()
});
});

Manual Testing

Terminal window
# Test webhook endpoint with curl
curl -X POST https://your-domain.com/webhooks/brevo/test \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-Brevo-Signature: sha256=test-signature" \
-d '{
"event": "delivered",
"email": "[email protected]",
"message-id": "test-123",
"ts": 1640995200
}'

Webhook Validation

class WebhookValidator {
static validateEvent(event) {
const required = ['event', 'email', 'message-id'];
const missing = required.filter(field => !event[field]);
if (missing.length > 0) {
throw new Error(`Missing required fields: ${missing.join(', ')}`);
}
// Validate email format
if (!this.isValidEmail(event.email)) {
throw new Error('Invalid email format');
}
// Validate event type
const validEvents = [
'delivered', 'opened', 'clicked', 'bounced', 'hard_bounced',
'spam', 'unsubscribed', 'sms_delivered', 'sms_failed'
];
if (!validEvents.includes(event.event)) {
throw new Error(`Invalid event type: ${event.event}`);
}
return true;
}
static isValidEmail(email) {
return /^[^\s@]+@[^\s@]+\.[^\s@]+$/.test(email);
}
}

Step 5: Monitoring and Logging

Webhook Monitoring

import winston from 'winston';
const webhookLogger = winston.createLogger({
level: 'info',
format: winston.format.combine(
winston.format.timestamp(),
winston.format.json()
),
transports: [
new winston.transports.File({ filename: 'webhook-error.log', level: 'error' }),
new winston.transports.File({ filename: 'webhook-combined.log' })
]
});
// Add monitoring middleware
app.use('/webhooks/brevo', (req, res, next) => {
const startTime = Date.now();
res.on('finish', () => {
const duration = Date.now() - startTime;
webhookLogger.info('Webhook processed', {
method: req.method,
url: req.url,
statusCode: res.statusCode,
duration: duration,
userAgent: req.headers['user-agent'],
contentLength: req.headers['content-length']
});
});
next();
});

Health Check Endpoint

app.get('/webhooks/brevo/health', async (req, res) => {
const health = {
status: 'healthy',
timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
uptime: process.uptime(),
version: process.env.npm_package_version,
environment: process.env.NODE_ENV,
checks: {
database: await checkDatabaseConnection(),
redis: await checkRedisConnection(),
brevoAPI: await checkBrevoAPIConnection()
}
};
const allHealthy = Object.values(health.checks).every(check => check.status === 'ok');
res.status(allHealthy ? 200 : 503).json(health);
});

Step 6: Error Handling and Recovery

Retry Logic

class WebhookProcessor {
constructor() {
this.maxRetries = 3;
this.retryDelay = 1000; // 1 second
}
async processEvent(event, retries = 0) {
try {
await this.handleEvent(event);
} catch (error) {
if (retries < this.maxRetries && this.isRetryableError(error)) {
console.warn(`Webhook processing failed, retrying... (${retries + 1}/${this.maxRetries})`);
await this.delay(this.retryDelay * Math.pow(2, retries)); // Exponential backoff
return this.processEvent(event, retries + 1);
}
// Max retries reached or non-retryable error
await this.handleFailedEvent(event, error);
throw error;
}
}
isRetryableError(error) {
// Retry on temporary failures
return error.code === 'ECONNRESET' ||
error.code === 'ETIMEDOUT' ||
(error.status >= 500 && error.status < 600);
}
async handleFailedEvent(event, error) {
// Store failed event for manual review
await loyaltyService.storeFailed Event(event, error.message);
// Alert operations team for critical events
if (this.isCriticalEvent(event)) {
await loyaltyService.alertOps('webhook_failure', {
event: event.event,
email: event.email,
error: error.message
});
}
}
delay(ms) {
return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
}
}

Dead Letter Queue

import Bull from 'bull';
const webhookQueue = new Bull('webhook processing', process.env.REDIS_URL);
const deadLetterQueue = new Bull('webhook failed', process.env.REDIS_URL);
webhookQueue.process(async (job) => {
const { event } = job.data;
await handleWebhookEvent(event);
});
webhookQueue.on('failed', async (job, err) => {
console.error(`Webhook job failed: ${err.message}`);
// Add to dead letter queue for manual processing
await deadLetterQueue.add('failed webhook', {
originalEvent: job.data.event,
error: err.message,
failedAt: new Date(),
attempts: job.attemptsMade
});
});

Troubleshooting Common Issues

1. Signature Verification Fails

// Debug signature verification
function debugSignature(payload, receivedSignature) {
const expectedSignature = crypto
.createHmac('sha256', process.env.BREVO_WEBHOOK_SECRET)
.update(payload)
.digest('hex');
console.log('Received signature:', receivedSignature);
console.log('Expected signature:', expectedSignature);
console.log('Payload length:', payload.length);
console.log('First 100 chars:', payload.slice(0, 100));
return expectedSignature === receivedSignature.replace('sha256=', '');
}

2. Missing Events

Check webhook configuration:

async function auditWebhookConfig() {
const webhooksApi = new WebhooksApi();
try {
const webhooks = await webhooksApi.getWebhooks();
webhooks.webhooks.forEach(webhook => {
console.log('Webhook ID:', webhook.id);
console.log('URL:', webhook.url);
console.log('Events:', webhook.events);
console.log('Status:', webhook.is_enabled ? 'enabled' : 'disabled');
});
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error auditing webhooks:', error);
}
}

3. High Latency

Optimize webhook processing:

// Process webhooks asynchronously
app.post('/webhooks/brevo', async (req, res) => {
// Verify signature quickly
if (!verifyWebhookSignature(req.body, req.headers['x-brevo-signature'])) {
return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Unauthorized' });
}
// Respond immediately
res.status(200).json({ success: true });
// Process event asynchronously
const event = JSON.parse(req.body.toString());
webhookQueue.add('process event', { event }, {
attempts: 3,
backoff: {
type: 'exponential',
delay: 2000
}
});
});

Next Steps