I have a simple HTTP server where you can create and manage todos. You can also add plugins in order to, for example, send an email to the people who starred a todo when that todo has been completed. I currently check for all enabled plugins through an query to the database, and then query each API endpoint for the different plugins (Gmail, Notion, Trello, etc). After this is finished, I send a response back to the user. This is a problem, because it means I rely on the speed of the external API's I am requesting for my response. If the Notion api is slow, then my endpoint is also slow.
Is there a way to first send a response after, for example, the server marks the todo as completed, but then send a different response after all the plugins have been queried (Gmail, Notion, Trello, etc)? Would I have to use web sockets? Or is the way I currently handle external API queries the only way to do it?
You are right thinking that you want to decouple requests from customers with backend processing (reaching out other providers); and web sockets is one of options to do that. HTTP2 streams is another options. And, of course, pulling is also a way (simple, but not too efficient).