Advanced Connections is LoanPro's powerful webhook functionality, allowing you to send information to third-party systems based on your own custom automations and business logic. 

Advanced Connections can be used for a wealth of different purposes. Instead of simply sending a payload of information, you could automate your processes. For example, you can use Advanced Connections to automatically log AutoPay adjustments, make changes to customer profiles, create third-party integrations with other platforms, and more. You could even use some of our other tools in tandem with webhooks—like creating Walkthroughs for your users that have them select smart checklist items that automatically send out webhooks.

The following sections explain how to set up Advanced Connections in LoanPro.

Configuring Advanced Connections

Advanced connections can be sent based on events and triggers:

Let's take a look at configuring a new webhook. Each setting is going to be dependent on what you'd like your webhook to do, but we'll give you a few examples to show you what you could build yourself. Below, we'll show you how to build a webhook that's sent to an external source and how to build one that's sent to LoanPro to update something. Let's create a trigger-based webhook that's sent out when a loan is five days past due and in the "Open" or "Collections" loan status. Here's our rule:

(and (= status-days-past-due 5) (or (= loan-status "Open") (= loan-status "Collections")))

Determine method and callback URL

Regardless of the type of webhook, you will need to determine the method and callback URL. Enter the URL you want to call into the 'Callback URL' field. This is the URL that you tell your webhook to send information to. This field can even include LoanPro's context engine variables. Here's an example:

https://loanpro.simnang.com/api/public/api/1/odata.svc/Loans([[v('loan-id')]]) 

When the webhook is sent, the loan ID variable will be replaced by the ID of the loan that fits the criteria for the webhook. 

You can select between four method types: GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE. Of those options, GETs, PUTs, and DELETEs are a webhook feature that incur costs.

Authenticate your webhook

This step is optional, but authentication requirements will depend on where you plan to send the webhook. There are two available options to authenticate:

• Tokens: Tokens provide greater security from DDoS attacks and allow you to protect yourself from unwanted webhook requests. We recommend using tokens with your webhooks as an added layer of defense and security. If the URL you're sending a LoanPro webhook to uses a simple authentication token, paste the token into the 'Authorization Token' field. If desired, you can also generate a new token here and copy it to the receiving system.
• Custom headers: This allows you to list the header parameters that a receiving system uses. This is useful if you're sending your webhook to an API, as most APIs use more than one authorization field to authenticate requests. The webhooks feature will allow up to 25 fields. Using custom headers is a webhook feature that incurs costs.

Autopal-Instance-Id: <Tenant ID>
Authorization: <Bearer token>
Content-Type: application/json

Set webhook retry settings

Retries are sent when a webhook fails to reach its desired destination. A retry will be attempted if LoanPro does not receive any response at all after 45 seconds. You can set up to 50 retry attempts and determine how much time the system will wait between sending the next request. You can also set your webhook to send no retry attempts at all.

Enter the payload

Lastly, you'll want to enter the variables that will be sent as part of the webhook notification when the event occurs. You'll notice that there are two text boxes here. 

The first section allows you to select which LoanPro variables to include in the webhook. To view and add variables, click the 'Help Variables' button. You will only need to enter the variable names (e.g. status-amount-due) and separate listed variables by commas. When you are done, click 'Save'. When the webhook is sent, the variables here will be sent in a JSON format.

The second section is the ‘Custom Body Formatting’ box. This section allows you to send the payload in any format you'd like. This is a webhook feature that incurs costs, but it's useful if you'd like to use a webhook to send a specific payload to an API. If you plan on sending custom formatted payloads, you’ll need to ensure the system catching the webhook accepts the format you use. If necessary, update your custom headers to accept the payload you use. 

Once you've added information to all sections of the webhooks page, simply hit 'Save' to add your webhook.

{
           "eventName": "Customer's Loan is 5 Days Past Due",
           "context": {
               "current-date": "2022-09-26",
               "next-scheduled-payment-amount": 89.24,
               "loan-id": 3579,
               "loan-status": "Open",
               "next-scheduled-payment-date": "2022-10-20",
               "status-days-past-due": 5,
               "status-amount-due": 158.70,
               "customer": {
                   "primary": {
                       "full-name": "Douglas McCallagher"
                   }
               }
           }
           "trace": "204262bb-4634-49ad-8b88-db8217b76c09",
           "auth": "",
           "attemptNumber": 1
        }

{
           "Notes": {
               "results": [
                   {
                       "body": "This customer was late on their payment  on [[v('current-date')]]. Their outstanding balance at the time was $[[v('status-amount-due')]].",
                       "categoryId": 2,
                       "subject": "Delinquencies",
                       "type": "STANDARD"
                   }
               ]
           }
        }