How to Create a Callback URL using Ngrok

Learning by Building

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

A while back I came across the need to create a callback URL while consuming Africa’s Talking USSD API. This was my first time coming across it and I didn’t know how to go about it.

I thought that I’d need to host the project first so I ignored it for a while.

Until I attended one of their sessions and they mentioned ngrok.

Create an Ngrok Account

You’ll be led to this page after signup or login.

image courtesy of the author

If you’re a windows user, follow the instructions. For macOS users you don’t need to follow the instructions because the download isn't a zip file as per their documentation but a Unix Executable file.

Just download and fire it up.

Fire up Ngrok

After opening the downloaded unix file, open a new window on the terminal and run the following command:

./ngrok http <specify the port you want to use>

I used port 3000 so my command was:

./ngrok http 3000