Receive WhatsApp messages using Webhook and Node.js

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will create a page to handle incoming WhatsApp message webhooks using Node.js

Dependencies

for local development purposes, a tunneling service is required. This example uses ngrok, You can download ngrok here: https://ngrok.com/download

Set up your project

install express and body-parser:

npm install express body-parser

A simple example of receiving WhatsApp messages from Ultramsg

const express = require('express')
const bodyParser = require('body-parser')
const app = express()
const PORT = 3000
// Setup a webhook route
app.use(bodyParser.json())
app.post('/ultramsgwebhook', (req, res) => {
  console.log(req.body) // print all response

  //messageFrom=req.body['data']['from'] // sender number
  //messageMsg=req.body['data']['body'] // Message text
  res.status(200).end()
})

app.use(bodyParser.json())
app.listen(PORT, () => console.log(`🚀 Server running on port ${PORT}🚀 `))

Start ngrok & Node.js project

Start Ngrok For Windows :

ngrok http 3000

Start Ngrok For Mac :

./ngrok http 3000

Start Nodejs project :

node index.js

Set Webhook URL to your instance in ultramsg

We create a new webhook endpoint: http://your-ngrok.io.com/ultramsgwebhook to handle the request, Now the webhook urls must be placed in the instance in Ultramsg and enable Webhook on Received option, as in the following image:

EXAMPLE JSON RESPONSE

{
  event_type: 'message_received',
  instanceId: '1150',
  data: {
    id: '[email protected]_3EB0FF54790702367270',
    from: '[email protected]',
    to: '[email protected]',
    ack: '',
    type: 'chat',
    body: 'Hello, World!',
    fromMe: false,
    time: 1644957719
  }
}

Congratulations. You have received your first WhatsApp message.

Types of webhooks to use with WhatsApp API & Ultramsg

• webhook_message_received : notifications in webhooks when message received .
• webhook_message_create : notifications in webhooks when message create .
• webhook_message_ack : ack (message delivered and message viewed) notifications in webhooks.

• finally, you can see Full Whatsapp API Documentation and FAQ.
• How to Send a Message by WhatsApp API using Node.js easily .

You can see the previous steps in this video :