Why is the transaction_disbursed webhook deprecated?

Question

On the pages documenting webhooks, like https://developers.braintreepayments.com/javascript+php/reference/general/webhooks, the transaction_disbursed webhook is listed as deprecated:

Deprecated

If your merchant account is associated with a participating bank then we will send you this Webhook once a transaction has been marked for disbursement (meaning it will leave our bank account today). You will only see this option in the Webhooks section of the Control Panel if you have an eligible merchant account.

However, there is no explanation of why it is deprecated.

This leads to a few questions:

1. Why is it deprecated?
2. Do Braintree intend to remove the webhook?
3. Does it work? At present, if I subscribe to the webhook, will I reliably receive it once per transaction?
4. If I don't use it, what am I supposed to use instead? Usually when a feature in a tech product is marked as deprecated, documentation suggests an alternative approach, but that isn't currently the case, here. I would like to know immediately when a transaction is disbursed so that I can make goods that the customer has paid for available to them; by what process am I supposed to do this, if not by the webhook? Is it preferred that I have a daemon that polls the transaction API on a loop? Why?

Answer 1

_{I work at Braintree. If you have more questions, your best bet is to reach out to our support team. I'll suggest we add an explicit message to the deprecated webhook about what to do instead.}

That webhook has been replaced by the disbursement webhook:

If your merchant account is associated with a participating bank, then we will send you this Webhook once we have sent a disbursement to your account (meaning it will leave our bank account today). You will only see this option in the Webhooks section of the Control Panel if you have an eligible merchant account. The difference between this and a Transaction Disbursed Webhook is that this is sent per merchant account per day, rather than per transaction. See the Disbursement Details section for more information.

Note that although the transaction_disbursed webhook gets sent once per transaction, the disbursements happen in a daily batch, so integrating against the transaction_disbursed webhook will not let you learn about disbursements faster. Additionally, the transaction_disbursed webhook may be removed in future. There is no reason to integrate against it and you should not do so.