Webhook unable to send data from clerk to Mongodb atlas

[vijayluxmimaddheshiya]

I am using clerk for the login and authentification of the user and sending user data from clerk to MongoDB via webhook , for deployment I am using vercel , but webhook is not sending the data to mongodb. from my side there is not any error sure and not sure what might be going wrong

`code for the route.ts file which is responsible for sending data- import { Webhook } from 'svix' import { headers } from 'next/headers' import { WebhookEvent } from '@clerk/nextjs/server' import { clerkClient } from '@clerk/nextjs' import { NextResponse } from 'next/server' import { createUser, deleteUser, updateUser } from '@/lib/actions/user.actions'

export async function POST(req: Request) {

// You can find this in the Clerk Dashboard -> Webhooks -> choose the webhook
const WEBHOOK_SECRET = process.env.WEBHOOK_SECRET

if (!WEBHOOK_SECRET) {
  throw new Error('Please add WEBHOOK_SECRET from Clerk Dashboard to .env or .env.local')
}

// Get the headers
const headerPayload =  await headers();
const svix_id = headerPayload.get("svix-id");
const svix_timestamp = headerPayload.get("svix-timestamp");
const svix_signature = headerPayload.get("svix-signature");

// If there are no headers, error out
if (!svix_id || !svix_timestamp || !svix_signature) {
  return new Response('Error occured -- no svix headers', {
    status: 400
  })
}

// Get the body
const payload = await req.json()
const body = JSON.stringify(payload);

// Create a new Svix instance with your secret.
const wh = new Webhook(WEBHOOK_SECRET);

let evt: WebhookEvent

// Verify the payload with the headers
try {
  evt = wh.verify(body, {
    "svix-id": svix_id,
    "svix-timestamp": svix_timestamp,
    "svix-signature": svix_signature,
  }) as WebhookEvent
} catch (err) {
  console.error('Error verifying webhook:', err);
  return new Response('Error occured', {
    status: 400
  })
}
  // Get the ID and type

const { id } = evt.data; const eventType = evt.type;

if(eventType === 'user.created') { const { id, email_addresses, image_url, first_name, last_name, username } = evt.data;

const user = {
  clerkId: id,
  email: email_addresses[0].email_address,
  username: username!,
  firstName: first_name,
  lastName: last_name,
  photo: image_url,
}

const newUser = await createUser(user);

if(newUser) {
  await clerkClient.users.updateUserMetadata(id, {
    publicMetadata: {
      userId: newUser._id
    }
  })
}

return NextResponse.json({ message: 'OK', user: newUser })

}

if (eventType === 'user.updated') { const {id, image_url, first_name, last_name, username } = evt.data

const user = {
  firstName: first_name,
  lastName: last_name,
  username: username!,
  photo: image_url,
}

const updatedUser = await updateUser(id, user)

return NextResponse.json({ message: 'OK', user: updatedUser })

}

if (eventType === 'user.deleted') { const { id } = evt.data

const deletedUser = await deleteUser(id!)

return NextResponse.json({ message: 'OK', user: deletedUser })

}

return new Response('', { status: 200 }) }

`

[yourengineerbro]

I asked claude: Is this code correct?

// Get the body const payload = await req.json() const body = JSON.stringify(payload);

Got this response:

No, this code introduces a potential issue. When you do req.json() and then JSON.stringify(payload), you're unnecessarily double-processing the JSON data. Here's why:

1. req.json() parses the JSON string from the request into a JavaScript object
2. Then JSON.stringify(payload) converts that object back into a JSON string

This is redundant and could potentially cause issues. Here's how it should be handled:

Option 1 - If you need the raw body string:

// Get the raw body string directly
const body = await req.text();

Option 2 - If you need both parsed data and body string:

// Get the raw body string first
const body = await req.text();
// Parse it if you need the payload as an object
const payload = JSON.parse(body);

The reason this matters specifically for Clerk webhooks is that the webhook verification needs to be performed on the original raw request body string, not a re-stringified version, as this could potentially cause the signature verification to fail.

Here's the corrected version for your webhook handler:

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  // ... header verification code ...

  // Get the raw body string
  const body = await req.text();

  // If you need the parsed payload for later use
  const payload = JSON.parse(body);

  // Create a new Svix instance with your secret.
  const wh = new Webhook(WEBHOOK_SECRET);

  let evt: WebhookEvent

  // Verify the payload with the headers using the raw body string
  try {
    evt = wh.verify(body, {
      "svix-id": svix_id,
      "svix-timestamp": svix_timestamp,
      "svix-signature": svix_signature,
    }) as WebhookEvent
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Error verifying webhook:', err);
    return new Response('Error occured', {
      status: 400
    })
  }

  // Continue with rest of your code...
}

This approach:

1. Preserves the original request body string for webhook verification
2. Still gives you access to the parsed data when needed
3. Ensures the signature verification will work correctly
4. Avoids any potential issues with double processing of JSON data

This could be one of the reasons why your webhook isn't working properly, as incorrect body handling can cause the webhook signature verification to fail.

Now if everything is working fine on local, there must be integration issues. Check that your environment variables, Urls and accesses are properly configured across all applications it depends on.

I looked at index.ts file in lib\database, and asked if claude could identity issue(basically make sure mongoDB is accessible), here they are:

Yes, there are a few potential issues and improvements that could be made to this MongoDB connection file:

1. The Database Name Has a Leading Space:

   dbName: ' Project 0',  // Notice the space at the start

   This is likely unintentional and could cause issues. It should be:

   dbName: 'Project0',  // Remove the space

   -- these are trivial issues. (You may go to additional link attached at bottom, as below are suggested improvements that seems to be good to have).

2. Missing Error Handling: The current code doesn't handle connection errors properly. Here's an improved version:

import mongoose from 'mongoose';

const MONGODB_URI = process.env.MONGODB_URI;

let cached = (global as any).mongoose || { conn: null, promise: null };

export const connectToDatabase = async () => {
  try {
    if (cached.conn) {
      // Check if the existing connection is still alive
      if (cached.conn.readyState === 1) {
        return cached.conn;
      }
      // If connection is not active, reset it
      cached.conn = null;
      cached.promise = null;
    }

    if (!MONGODB_URI) {
      throw new Error('MONGODB_URI is missing in environment variables');
    }

    cached.promise = cached.promise || mongoose.connect(MONGODB_URI, {
      dbName: 'Project0',
      bufferCommands: false,
      maxPoolSize: 10, // Add connection pool settings
      serverSelectionTimeoutMS: 5000, // Add timeout settings
      socketTimeoutMS: 45000,
      family: 4 // Use IPv4, skip trying IPv6
    });

    cached.conn = await cached.promise;

    // Add connection event listeners
    mongoose.connection.on('error', (error) => {
      console.error('MongoDB connection error:', error);
    });

    mongoose.connection.on('disconnected', () => {
      console.warn('MongoDB disconnected');
    });

    mongoose.connection.on('connected', () => {
      console.info('Successfully connected to MongoDB');
    });

    return cached.conn;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Failed to connect to MongoDB:', error);
    throw error;  // Re-throw to handle it in the calling function
  }
}

3. Usage in Your Webhook: You should implement the connection in your webhook handler like this:

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  try {
    // Connect to database first
    await connectToDatabase();

    // Rest of your webhook code...
    const headerPayload = headers();
    // ... webhook handling ...

  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Webhook handler error:', error);
    return new Response('Internal Server Error', { status: 500 });
  }
}

4. Environment Variable Verification: Add a script to verify the MongoDB URI format:

const validateMongoDBUri = (uri: string | undefined) => {
  if (!uri) return false;

  // Basic MongoDB URI format validation
  const mongoDBPattern = /^mongodb(?:\+srv)?:\/\/[^\s]+$/;
  return mongoDBPattern.test(uri);
};

export const connectToDatabase = async () => {
  try {
    if (!validateMongoDBUri(MONGODB_URI)) {
      throw new Error('Invalid MONGODB_URI format');
    }

    // Rest of the connection code...
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('MongoDB connection error:', error);
    throw error;
  }
};

5. Add Types:

   
   interface CachedConnection {
   conn: typeof mongoose | null;
   promise: Promise<typeof mongoose> | null;
   }

let cached = (global as any).mongoose || { conn: null, promise: null } as CachedConnection;

6. Consider Adding Retry Logic:
```typescript
const connectWithRetry = async (retries = 3, delay = 5000) => {
  for (let i = 0; i < retries; i++) {
    try {
      return await mongoose.connect(MONGODB_URI!, {
        dbName: 'Project0',
        bufferCommands: false,
      });
    } catch (error) {
      if (i === retries - 1) throw error;
      console.warn(`Failed to connect to MongoDB, retrying in ${delay/1000}s...`);
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, delay));
    }
  }
};

export const connectToDatabase = async () => {
  try {
    if (cached.conn) return cached.conn;

    if (!MONGODB_URI) throw new Error('MONGODB_URI is missing');

    cached.promise = cached.promise || connectWithRetry();
    cached.conn = await cached.promise;

    return cached.conn;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Failed to connect to MongoDB:', error);
    throw error;
  }
};

These improvements will:

1. Handle connection errors properly
2. Add connection monitoring
3. Implement retry logic
4. Validate the MongoDB URI
5. Add proper TypeScript types
6. Remove the space in the database name
7. Add connection pooling configurations

Make sure to also verify in your Vercel deployment that:

1. The MONGODB_URI environment variable is correctly set
2. The MongoDB Atlas network access settings allow connections from Vercel's IP ranges
3. The database user has the correct permissions
4. The database name matches exactly what's in your connection code

Additional links: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66739797/how-to-handle-a-post-request-in-next-js