When CapitolMath changes

Widgets and webhooks keep working the way you set them up, even when CapitolMath changes what the widget builder or the webhook builder offers. New ones always start with the latest options, and nobody has to choose a version.

What reaches every widget at once#

• The data. A corrected vote count or a newly recorded action shows up in every widget, whatever its options.
• Fixes. When a chart's numbers were wrong, a color failed contrast, or a label was misspelled, every widget gets the fix.
• New options. A new chart, column, panel or theme is offered to every widget the next time you edit it. Nothing is added to a widget on its own.

What a widget keeps#

• Options that are retired. When CapitolMath stops offering a chart or an option, new widgets don't see it, but a widget already using it keeps it. It goes on showing it, and you can still edit the widget with it. In the builder it's marked Retired, kept for this widget.
• What its settings mean. When an option changes meaning, or a default changes, existing widgets stay on the options they were made with until you update them.

Older widgets#

A widget with older options has a line at the top of the builder saying that it keeps working as it is. The list of widgets marks it Older options, and Only widgets with older options finds them. There are no banners, emails or deadlines.

• See what's new lists what's changed that affects this widget, such as a chart it shows that has been replaced. Changes that don't affect it aren't listed.
• Update this widget shows the widget as it is and as it would be, side by side on the same saved view, with what would change. Save update applies it, everywhere the widget is embedded; Cancel leaves it alone. A retired option with nothing to replace it stays as it is.
• Undo update puts the widget back as it was, for 30 days after the update, until you next save the widget.

Webhooks#

An HTTPS webhook receives its payloads in its own payload version. New fields can be added to a version at any time, so your code should ignore fields it doesn't know. Any other change to a payload comes as a new version, and your webhook keeps receiving the one it's on. Slack, Teams and email messages are written for people, so they always use the latest wording. See Payloads and the list of payload versions.

An event CapitolMath stops offering isn't offered to new webhooks, but a webhook that has it keeps receiving it.

Updating a webhook's payload version#

A webhook on an older version says so on its page: "This webhook receives payloads in the October 2026 format. It keeps doing so until you update it."

1. Select Update payload version. It lists what's changed for the events this webhook receives, and shows each event's payload in its current format and the new one, side by side, with the differences marked.
2. Update your endpoint to read the new format, then select Send a test in the new format. Your endpoint has to answer it with a 2xx.
3. Select Switch to the new format. Every delivery from then on, replays included, is in the new format.

For 30 days afterwards, Switch back on the webhook's page returns it to the version it was on.