Getting candidate applications with homemade webhook notifications

If your company is always hiring tech talent through Habr, the Pachca × Habr Career integration will make sure you never miss a notification about a new application. Habr doesn't have built-in webhooks for this, so we'll walk you through building an API app.

We've described the integration in detail so that anyone with development experience can set it up. We've also included code samples to make the job a lot easier.

Technical details

Script: OAuth 2.0 authorization, fetching JSON, sending a webhook, APScheduler
Language: Python + Flask
Difficulty: Intermediate
Author: Danila, tech support manager
Repository: https://github.com/doesntneedname/HabrCareerAPI/tree/main

Step 1: Setup

First, you'll need a .venv virtual environment. You can create it in any IDE. Just make sure you're on Python 3 or later and run the following in your terminal:

python3 -m venv .venv

You'll also need to install Flask and requests. Run these commands in your terminal one at a time:

pip install Flask
pip install requests
pip install apscheduler

Step 2: Setup, part 2

Now you need the source code. Copy it from here: https://github.com/doesntneedname/HabrCareerAPI/blob/main/main.py

from flask import Flask, redirect, request, session, jsonify, json
from flask_apscheduler import APScheduler
import requests
import urllib.parse
import math

app = Flask(__name__)

Setup isn't quite done yet. Create two empty files in the .venv folder: cached_applies.json and access_token.txt

Step 3: Configure and run

Now you need to set values for a few constants. Every step like this is described in the code with # comments.

Read through the code comments carefully and fill in your data (except WEBHOOK_URL, which you'll get when you create the integration in Pachca). You can also adjust the timer for how often the app runs its loop, along with other marked variables, based on their descriptions. For example: one request to the server and a check every minute.

Step 4: Receive the webhook in Pachca

In this step, you'll teach Pachca to accept the webhook from your app. Here's how:

1. Create a new integration under "Automations" → "Chatbots and webhooks". If you plan to show the data in several chats, choose the "For multiple chats" integration type.

2. Next, write a message template to display the data sent to Pachca. The keys must match the payload keys in the code:

👨💻New application for {{vacancy_title}} from {{user_name}}!
Experience: {{experience}} years
Resume: {{link}}
Email: {{email}}
Telegram: https://telegram.me/{{telegram}}
{{habr_profile_link}}
{{body}}

3. Go to the "Incoming webhook" tab and paste in the template.

4. Copy the webhook URL and paste it into the code in place of WEBHOOK_URL.

5. Go to the chat where you want to see new application notifications. Open the member list → Integrations and add the webhook you created with +.

Step 5: Launch

All that's left is to run the code on a local server:

1. Run your code in the IDE terminal. The app will print a link to the local server in the terminal. Don't confuse this with simply running the code.
2. Open the link and click Login.
3. Lean back in your chair and watch new applications roll into your work chat.

Bonus: when a new candidate applies, you can discuss them with your colleagues right in a thread under the bot's message.