Step-by-Step Guide to Using Q-Flow Sources

Overview

Effortlessly receive and manage webhooks from external services with a quick, one-time setup and no ongoing maintenance.

Q-Flow Sources simplifies event management at scale by centralising event ingestion, routing, and authentication into one intuitive platform. Built-in fault tolerance ensures no event slips through the cracks, while advanced filtering and aggregation let you focus on the events that truly matter.

What It Is

With Q-Flow Sources, Q-Flow can receive events from third-party services and act as a central event gateway. By centralising event ingestion, routing, and authentication into a single, intuitive platform, Q-Flow eliminates the chaos of managing disparate webhook streams, ensuring you never miss a critical event again.

Why It Matters:

• Centralized Control: Stream all your inbound events through Q-Flow, reducing complexity and simplifying your infrastructure.
• Fine-Grained Filtering: Subscribe only to the events you need, helping you comply with data protection regulations and minimize payload processing.
• Compliance & Security: Restrict which HTTP methods are allowed (e.g., only POST or PUT), define IP whitelists (IP addresses, ranges, CIDR), and leverage Basic, API Key, or JWT-based authentication to ensure only valid requests make it through.
  

Process Requests from Third-Party Services in a matter of minutes! Follow the Guide below to get started.

Step-by-Step guide

Step 1: Sign Up for a Free Account

1. Sign Up: Click here to Sign Up for Free using your email address or GitHub account.
2. Name Your Organization: Provide a unique organization name and choose your region.
3. Set Up Your Environment: By default, you’ll have a development environment that is ideal for testing before moving into production.

Step 2: Create a Q-Flow Source

A Source is the entry point for any external service or application sending requests or events. Here’s how to set one up:

1. In the Management Portal, navigate to Sources on the left sidebar.
2. Click "Add New Source".
3. Provide a unique name (across both Topics and Sources) and a description.
4. Select one or more HTTP methods (e.g., POST, GET) you’ll accept.
5. (Optional) Configure authentication details (e.g., Basic Auth, API Key, or JWT).
6. (Optional) Apply IP whitelisting using IP addresses, ranges, or CIDR.
7. Click Create.

Here’s a sample JSON payload you might receive from a third-party service:

1{
2  "id": "evt_1NzqHd2eZvKYlo2C1e6QJF1Y",
3  "object": "event",
4  "api_version": "2024-03-01",
5  "created": 1709564723,
6  "data": {
7    "object": {
8      "id": "pi_3NzqHd2eZvKYlo2C0cTCXy5M",
9      "object": "payment_intent",
10      "amount": 2000,
11      "currency": "usd",
12      "status": "succeeded",
13      "charges": {
14        "object": "list",
15        "data": [
16          {
17            "id": "ch_3NzqHd2eZvKYlo2C1T0yTpoL",
18            "object": "charge",
19            "amount": 2000,
20            "currency": "usd",
21            "paid": true,
22            "payment_method": "pm_1NzqHc2eZvKYlo2CeqKbdrqY"
23          }
24        ]
25      }
26    }
27  },
28  "livemode": false,
29  "pending_webhooks": 1,
30  "type": "payment_intent.succeeded"
31}

Once created, Q-Flow provides a secure endpoint (URL) you can share with your providers (e.g., GitHub, Stripe). Any request matching your chosen HTTP methods, authentication, and IP rules will flow into Q-Flow seamlessly.

Step 3: Add a Subscription to Your Source

Now that you have a Source set up, it’s time to create a Subscription that defines which events you’re interested in and where to route them.

1. Open the Source you created in Step 2.
2. Click Add Subscription.
3. Give your Subscription a unique name and a description.
4. (Optional) Enable Advanced Filtering, Aggregation, or Transformation.:
   
   - Click the Plus (+) icon next to the endpoint destination.
   - In the Advanced Query modal, add a sample JSON event under Input.
   - Write your SQL query to filter or transform the data.
   - Test your filter to verify the output, then click Save.
   
5. Set a Webhook Endpoint URL to define where Q-Flow should forward these events.
6. Configure maximum retries for the webhook. Q-Flow will use exponential back-off to retry deliveries if an endpoint is temporarily unavailable.
7. Click Create.
   
   Example SQL of using the Q-Flow Advance Query

1SELECT  
2  customer.id, 
3  UPPER (customer.name) AS customer_name 
4FROM events 
5WHERE event_type = 'order_created' 

Here, we're selecting the customer.id and the uppercase version of customer.name only for order_created events.

Pro Tip: After creating the Subscription, you’ll see a Subscription Webhook Secret. Use this to verify the authenticity of events. Check out Q-Flow’s Webhook Signatures documentation for more info.

Why Q-Flow Sources?

• Guaranteed Delivery: Exponential retries, dead-letter queues, and replay ensure no event is lost.
• Simplified Setup: One-time, centralized configuration via an intuitive UI, REST APIs, or CLI.
• Scalable Architecture: Easily add more event sources or handle heavier traffic without major re-engineering.

That’s it! You’re now set up to receive, filter, and route incoming requests through Q-Flow Sources. Whether you’re consolidating data streams or orchestrating microservices, Q-Flow provides the backbone for reliable, scalable event routing.

Get Started

Ready to give it a try? Sign up for a free Q-Flow account to unlock all the features at no cost. If you get stuck or have any questions, explore the Q-Flow documentation or join our community forum.

Q-Flow Loom Video: https://www.loom.com/share/b4dae82041bb47edadb18b22e86fc508?sid=da4c1323-6d43-4ec9-b1ba-0db4d2ef4d6e