Configuring Webhooks in the Smartling Dashboard

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up and managing webhook subscriptions through the Smartling dashboard's Webhook Subscriptions List page. 

The Webhooks Subscription List is the central dashboard interface in Smartling where you can create, manage, and monitor all webhook subscriptions for your account. This page provides a comprehensive view of your webhook configurations, delivery status, and subscription management tools. 

From this centralized interface, you can view and manage webhook subscriptions created in the Smartling dashboard and subscriptions created via the Smartling API.

Tip: To learn more about webhooks see Smartling Webhooks Overview.

Accessing the Webhook Subscriptions List

To access the Webhooks Subscriptions List, go to Account Settings > Webhooks. 

Info: • Users with an Account Owner role can view and edit all subscriptions.
• Users with a Project Manager role can create, view and edit only subscriptions for the projects they have access to. 

For more information, see permissions & access control.

Navigating the Webhooks Subscriptions List

The Webhooks Subscription List provides a table of all your webhook subscriptions with the following information: 

1. Name: The name of the subscription, chosen during setup.
2. Description: If an (optional) description was added, it is displayed underneath the subscription name.
3. Added by: Indicates the subscription owner.
   • For subscriptions created from the Smartling dashboard, the name of the Smartling user who created the subscription is displayed.
   • If a subscription was created via the Smartling API, the subscription owner is displayed as "Added by API."
4. Subscribed Events: The specific events this webhook monitors (e.g., "job completed, file published").
5. Projects: The project(s) associated with the subscription.
6. Endpoint URL: The URL where webhook payloads are sent.
7. Status: Enabled (active) or Disabled (inactive). Disabled subscriptions don't send webhooks.
8. Actions: Click on the ellipsis to manage the subscription: Edit, enable, disable or delete the subscription.
9. Filters allow you to search for specific webhook subscriptions by name, endpoint URL, included events or projects, creation date, and status.
    

Creating a webhook subscription

Webhooks can be configured by Account Owners and Project Managers through the Webhook Subscriptions List in the Smartling dashboard.

Note: It is possible to create a maximum of 20 subscriptions per Smartling account.

To add a webhook from the Smartling dashboard, follow these steps.

Step 1: Set up or add a subscription

1. Navigate to the Webhooks Subscription List (Account Settings > Webhooks)
2. Click Set up a webhook subscription (for first subscription) or Add Subscription (if at least one subscription already exists)
   

Step 2: Enter subscription details

Complete the fields under Subscription Details:

• Name: Enter a descriptive name for the subscription. Use a name that’s easily recognizable and meaningful to your team (e.g., Blog Translation Events, E-commerce Job Alerts, File Processing Alerts).
• Description (optional): Add a brief description explaining the subscription's purpose.
• Endpoint URL: Enter the URL where Smartling should send webhook messages.
• Signing Secret (optional): Used to verify that incoming webhook messages are from a trusted source. If you don't provide a signing secret, the system will generate one automatically.
• Projects: Select the relevant Smartling project(s) from the drop-down menu. Events subscribed to in the selected project(s) will trigger the webhook. 
  Project Managers are required to select at least one project. Account Owners may leave this blank if the webhook subscription should include all projects in the account.

Note: A maximum of 10 projects can be included per subscription.

Step 3: Select subscribed events

Under the section Subscribed Events, select the events you want to track. When the selected events occur in one of the projects specified in your Subscription Details, this will trigger the webhook notification.

Check the boxes next to the events you want to subscribe to for the selected project(s). It is possible to select multiple events, and there is no limit on the number of event types you can subscribe to.

Tip: For more information about all available events, visit the Events Catalog.

Step 4 (optional): Customize advanced options

Under Advanced Options, you can define custom headers to include additional information in the webhook payload. This step is optional but may be required for security or tracking purposes.

Step 5: Confirm the subscription

Click Add Subscription to confirm the creation of the webhook subscription.

By default, the new subscription will be enabled. If you would like to create the subscription, but have it deactivated, you will need to disable it after it has been created.
 

Enabling, disabling and deleting subscriptions

From the Webhook Subscriptions List, you can enable, disable or delete existing webhook subscriptions.

1. Access the Webhook Subscriptions List. From the Status column, you can check if a subscription is currently enabled or disabled.
2. Under Actions, click on the ellipsis next to the subscription that you would like to enable, disable or delete.
   
3. Select the desired action:
   • Disable: The webhook subscription will no longer trigger any delivery attempts about subscribed events, but will remain available in the list and can be enabled again if needed. Only active (enabled) subscriptions can be disabled.
   • Enable: This action is only available for subscriptions that are currently disabled. Enabling the subscription means that the subscription becomes active and events will get delivered to the endpoint URL.
   • Delete: This action will permanently remove the subscription and its activity log from the Smartling dashboard. This cannot be undone, and a deleted subscription cannot be reactivated.

Info: A subscription may be automatically disabled if all delivery attempts within 96 hours fail. We recommend checking the activity log and delivery attempts to troubleshoot potential delivery issues. Once the endpoint is able to successfully receive events, the subscription can be enabled again, as described above.

Viewing and editing subscription details

Once a webhook subscription has been created, it can be accessed and managed from the Webhook Subscriptions List. 

Editing a subscription

Subscriptions can be updated at any time, e.g. to change the subscription details, subscribed events or custom headers. To edit a subscription, click on the ellipsis from the Webhook Subscriptions List and select the action "Edit":

Subscription Details

To view all details and the activity log for a webhook subscription, click on the subscription name.

This opens the Subscription Details page. Here, you can view the subscription details and activity log.

From the Details tab, you can:

• View all subscription details, including the subscribed events and projects, and the endpoint URL.
• Reveal and edit the signing secret.
  • Changing the signing secret will invalidate the current one.
  • The signing secret can only be changed a maximum of 10 times within a 24 hour period.
• Click Edit Subscription to make changes to any of the existing subscription details or to events included in the subscription. 

Delivery status and attempts

From the Subscription Details, click into the Activity tab to view the events activity for the selected subscription over the last 30 days.

The Activity tab displays the following information:

• Event ID: Unique identifier for each event that triggered a webhook notification.
• Event Type: Shows which event occurred in Smartling to trigger the webhook notification.
• Delivery Status: Indicates whether the payload has been successfully delivered to the endpoint URL.
  • Delivered: The webhook message was sent successfully.
  • Failed: The payload could not be delivered. See the Webhooks Technical Reference for more information.
  • Pending: The webhook message is queued to be sent.
  • Sending: The webhook message is currently being sent.
• Event Created Date: Displays when the event occurred.

View delivery attempts

From the Activity tab of the Subscription Details page, click View Attempts to view a log of Smartling's delivery attempts for the selected event


This page displays all delivery attempts made to the specified endpoint for the selected event.

Note: Smartling will perform a total of 10 delivery attempts. If all of them fail, redelivery can be requested manually via the Smartling API.

You can view the delivery status for each attempt (e.g. Delivered, Failed, etc.), as well as the following information:

• Timestamp: Displays when the delivery attempt was made.
• Attempt ID
• Trigger type: Scheduled or manual.
  • Delivery attempts made by Smartling will be indicated as "Scheduled".
  • If a delivery has failed and the maximum of 10 scheduled attempts has been reached, it is possible to manually request redelivery via the Smartling API. A manual redelivery is indicated by the trigger type "Manual".
• HTTP status code: The HTTP status code returned by your endpoint
• HTTP response: Response body

Manual resend

You can manually resend a specific event by clicking the Resend button within the Activity tab.

Tip: For more information about the delivery behavior, requirements and attempt schedule, please visit our technical reference documentation.