The story of Notificationbroker

Why did I develop Notificationbroker?

Posted by: Henning // 4th Apr 2021 // Category: //

The story behind the product...

It all started with a problem at one of our clients. We use Telegramgroups in several apps and services for notifications. All of a sudden, the notifications stopped working for all scripts.

I looked into it and noticed: all groups have been converted to "supergroups" and with that change, the "ChatID" changed. So the identifier that is given in the API Call needs to be updated to the new ChatID. (Maybe you remember this...)

However the problem was: I had to dig into 20 scripts and (due to some fire&forget programming) had to update the ChatID in each API call. Even though I could just use "Search&Replace" it took me quite a while.

I started to think about this and thought: wouldn't it be great to make this change in just a single point? Not in every script? What if... what if I would have a web interface to manage all of this?

The next day the same customer came back to me - he wanted so split the one big Telgramgroup into 4 groups for some seperation... So again I had to touch all scripts.

The idea grew in my brain. What if I could change the destination for each script in the Webapp? And what, if I could even add more than on service to his? Maybe MS Teams or E-Mail? And maybe deliver a single notification to all those channels? That was the day, I started building Notificationbroker

How does it work?

Basically it's quite easy: You define an "App" in Notificationbroker and send you notifications to this app. Than you define your Endpoints and attach them to the App.

How does it work

What Endpoints can be used?

Currently these endpoints are implemented:

  • Telegram
  • MS Teams
  • E-Mail

For the future I plan to implement

  • Signal messenger
  • SMS
  • HTTP Webhooks

How do I send notifications?

Thats really easy! Just send them via HTTPS using Bearer Token or Basic Auth!

Example with Bearer Token: 

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR-TOKEN" https://notificationbroker.com/notify/YOUR-APP-ID/YOUR-TEXT

With real data in it: 

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer vC2kiOLtuUWrhJJeNKyWvPJaspbefwKt7sagyMMM" https://notificationbroker.com/notify/96497e12bac24695309af4efe650657b/TEXT

You can also send the text using a GET Parameter if your applications needs this: 

curl -u [email protected]:MySafePassword https://notificationbroker.com/notifylegacy/YOUR-APP-ID/query?text=YOUR-APP-ID/YOUR-TEXT

What does it cost?

Nothing - its free :) Well at least in a basic edition. Of couse there are some paid features - but have a look at it for free at https://www.notificationbroker.com/register