This blog post describes an experiment using Google Cloud Functions to handle web push notifications for services that don't natively support them. I needed a way to process incoming webhooks from various sources like Travis CI and GitHub, transform their payloads into a consistent format for web push, and ensure the system could scale and remain isolated. Google Cloud Functions provided a serverless solution, allowing me to create separate functions for each webhook source. The front-end receives the webhook, pushes the data to a designated Pub/Sub queue, and the corresponding cloud function processes the message and publishes the transformed data to another queue for sending the web push notification. This setup allows for flexibility, scalability, and isolation, fulfilling all my initial requirements.
This post details the creation of a generic web-push webhook endpoint. Motivated by the desire for a streamlined notification system for various web services, I built a system that allows me to receive push notifications without needing each service to individually support web push. The system consists of a front-end client, a service worker, a front-end server, a subscription service, and a send service. The front-end client manages subscriptions and provides a unique URL endpoint. The service worker displays notifications. The front-end server handles subscription data and message routing. The subscription service persists subscription information. The send service encrypts and delivers messages to the push service. While I anticipate needing to retire this as more services natively support web push, I hope this example serves as inspiration for others looking to implement similar functionality.
This post announces the implementation of automatic deployment for this blog, powered by Jekyll (Octopress) and GitHub WebHooks. The previous workflow involved local editing, committing to GitHub, and deploying via SSH using rake deploy. The new process leverages GitHub WebHooks and a modified version of Github-Auto-Deploy to automatically pull, build, and deploy changes upon pushing to the GitHub repository, simplifying the deployment process and eliminating the need for terminal access and SSH keys.
