Updating subscribers in a list using cURL and Mailchimp API v3

Question

I have this code below that adds a user to a pre-existing list in Mailchimp.

$apikey = '<api_key>';
        $auth = base64_encode( 'user:'.$apikey );

        $data = array(
            'apikey'        => $apikey,
            'email_address' => $email,
            'status'        => 'subscribed',
            'merge_fields'  => array(
                'FNAME' => $name
            )
        );
        $json_data = json_encode($data);

        $ch = curl_init();
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://us2.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/lists/<list_id>/members/');
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json',
                                                    'Authorization: Basic '.$auth));
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'PHP-MCAPI/2.0');
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json_data);                                                                                                                  

        $result = curl_exec($ch);

        var_dump($result);
        die('Mailchimp executed');

This code only adds users to the list and when I try add the details of the same user twice it throws the following error on the second attempt:

[email protected] is already a list member. Use PATCH to update existing members.

How do I go about using PATCH to update user details? I'm not sure where to specify it.

Melano

Answer 1

I figured out where I'm going wrong. When the user is initially added to the list the response provides an ID. I need to store the ID in my database with those person's details and reference the ID in the url I'm making a call to when I want to update the user's details in the Mailchimp List.

https://us2.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/lists/<list_id_goes_here>/members/<members_id_goes_here>

Thanks @TooMuchPete for the correct curl command.

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PATCH");

Melano

Do note that the "subscriber ID" is really just the MD5 hash of their email address. – Woodard

For anyone else looking at how to update the email of an existing subscriber - you can't do that (you need to DELETE the old email and then add the new one as a new subscriber). You cannot change information marked as "readonly" in the schema here: us9.api.mailchimp.com/schema/3.0/Lists/Members/Instance.json – Balcony

Also note the subscriber ID is the lower case email address hashed with MD5. In PHP this means you must do md5(strtolower($email)). Here is the MailChimp documentation link on this. – Cynar

Answer 2

You're looking for the CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST option in cURL.

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PATCH");

But, since this is now your second question in as many days asking how to use built-in cURL library, it might be worth using something a little better. If you're on PHP 5.4 or better, I recommend Guzzle. PHP Requests is also very good, though, and works with PHP 5.3.

Woodard

This doesn't seem to work. I get the following error: "type" : "kb.mailchimp.com/api/error-docs/405-method-not-allowed", "title" : "Method Not Allowed","status":405,"detail":"The requested method and resource are not compatible. See the Allow header for this resource's available methods." The link on the page of the provided url leads to a 403 page which doesn't help me much. – Melano

Also, thanks for those suggestions. I'll keep them in mind for future projects. The framework this website was developed in is pretty old and I think I'd spend more time figuring out how to integrate Guzzle than it's worth. – Melano

Comment fail, the url in my original comment is kb.mailchimp.com/api/error-docs/405-method-not-allowed – Melano

Answer 3

Try this one. It's working for me. I am using this function. Hope it should be solved your problem.

<?php
/**
 * Created by PhpStorm.
 * User: Faisal
 * Website: www.faisal-ibrahim.info
 * Date: 2/12/2016
 * Time: 10:07 AM
 */
if (isset($_POST['email'])) {
    $email = $_POST['email'];
} else {
    $email = '[email protected]';
}

$data              = [
    'email'     => $email,
    'status'    => 'subscribed',
    'firstname' => 'Faisal',
    'lastname'  => 'Ibrahim'
];
$api_response_code = listSubscribe($data);
echo $api_response_code;

/**
 * Mailchimp API- List Subscribe added function.In this method we'll look how to add a single member to a list using the lists/subscribe method.Also, We will cover the different parameters for submitting a new member as well as passing in generic merge field information.
 *
 * @param array $data Subscribe information Passed.
 *
 * @return mixed
 */
function listSubscribe(array $data)
{
    $apiKey = "cf8a1fd222a500f27f9e042449867c7c-us15";//your API key goes here
    $listId = "e8f3f5f880";// your trageted list ID

    $memberId   = md5(strtolower($data['email']));
    $dataCenter = substr($apiKey, strpos($apiKey, '-') + 1);
    $url        = 'https://' . $dataCenter . '.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/lists/' . $listId . '/members/' . $memberId;
    $json       = json_encode([
        'email_address' => $data['email'],
        'status'        => $data['status'], // "subscribed","unsubscribed","cleaned","pending"
        'merge_fields'  => [
            'FNAME' => $data['firstname'],
            'LNAME' => $data['lastname']
        ]
    ]);

    $ch = curl_init($url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, 'user:' . $apiKey);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ['Content-Type: application/json']);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'PUT');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PATCH");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);

    $result   = curl_exec($ch);
    $httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
    curl_close($ch);

    return $httpCode;
}

Trait

Did you notice that you set PUT then overwrote with PATCH before executing? Bad copy-paste? – Slipper

Did you need to check my linkedin before deciding to respond? – Slipper