Webhook

A webhook is a message the supplier's system sends to an address you give it whenever a defined event happens. Without one your software has to ask the supplier's API again and again whether anything has changed, which costs requests and adds delay for the customer. Aniva sends a signed webhook for every sample status change, so your system is told once per change.

Signing matters because the address you publish can be reached by anyone who finds it. A signature lets your code check that a message really came from the supplier before your product acts on it. Retries matter for the same reason, because your endpoint will be unavailable at some point and the message has to be sent again.

• Ask which events produce a webhook and what each message contains.
• Ask how messages are signed and where the verification steps are documented.
• Ask what happens when your endpoint is down and how many retries follow.
• Ask whether past events can be sent again after an outage on your side.

A webhook does not remove the need for the API, because your system still reads the full result once the message tells it that one exists. Teams that skip webhooks usually ask the API on a fixed schedule instead, which is slower for the customer waiting for a report.

In this glossary, REST API covers the interface your code calls, while Time-to-Result covers the wait your customer notices and Partner-Portal covers the route for a team with no developers.