This Week I Learned - Week #137

This Week I Learned -

* WebHooks is a simple pattern for integrating event notifications across different SaaS services. If the service you want to integrate with supports WebHooks then you can use that. If it supports SignalR then you can use that. In that sense the two are quite complementary.

* WebHooks is a lightweight HTTP pattern providing a simple pub/sub model for wiring together Web APIs and SaaS services. When an event happens in a service, a notification is sent in the form of an HTTP POST request to registered subscribers. The POST request contains information about the event which makes it possible for the receiver to act accordingly.

* Because of their simplicity, WebHooks are already exposed by a large number of services including Dropbox, GitHub, Instagram, MailChimp, PayPal, Slack, Trello, and many more. For example, a WebHook can indicate that a file has changed in Dropbox, or a code change has been committed in GitHub, or a payment has been initiated in PayPal, or a card has been created in Trello

* Microsoft ASP.NET WebHooks makes it easier to both send and receive WebHooks as part of your ASP.NET application:
On the receiving side, it provides a common model for receiving and processing WebHooks from any number of WebHook providers. It comes out of the box with support for Azure Alerts, Dropbox, GitHub, Kudu, Instagram, MailChimp, PayPal, Pusher, Salesforce, Slack, Stripe, Trello, and WordPress but it is easy to add support for more.
On the sending side it provides support for managing and storing subscriptions as well as for sending event notifications to the right set of subscribers. This allows you to define your own set of events that subscribers can subscribe to and notify them when things happens.

* The latest drop of ASP.NET WebHooks has added a generic JSON WebHook receiver, which can be used to receive WebHooks from services like IFTTT and Zapier.

* Some of the new documentation from Microsoft Patterns & Practices is on Github

* Microsoft Edge no longer supports extensibility models such as ActiveX and Browser Helper Objects.

* FreeFormatter.com provides a lot of online programming utilities & tools

* Google Maps is now available offline in India

* 73% of the total VC/PE investments in India are concentrated in only 10 companies: Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, Paytm, Quickr, Zomato, Oyo, Practo, and Pepperfry.com.

* Cashews are from the same plant family as poison oak, poison, sumac, and poison ivy (Anacardiaceae). The nuts aren't sold in the shell, because contact with the shell or the oil that's removed during processing may result in poison ivy-like rashes!

* "This is an era of intolerance. When it comes to religious matters, people become very sensitive." - Bombay High Court

* "Whoever wins, the people of Bihar have already lost." - Historian Ramachandra Guha, citing the lawlessness that defines Lalu Prasad Yadav’s politics. Lalu Prasad Yadav...a notoriously corrupt populist..commands the allegiance of one of the state’s largest caste communities.