Can not get MailChimp to save my data using the API with Curl

Question

I have tried and tried to send data to MailChimp using curl but cannot get the data to save in MailChimp. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Here is my code:

$mailChimpUrl = "http://us2.api.mailchimp.com/1.3/?method=listSubscribe";
$merges = array(
    'FNAME'=>'Dave', 
    'LNAME'=>'Gilmour',
    'BUILDING'=>'Central High School',
    'MMERGE17' => '35904',
    'MMERGE12'=>'Yes'
);

$apikey="myrealapiishere-us2";
$listId="myrealformidishere";
$email="zz22@aol.com";
$double_optin=true;
$update_existing=false;
$replace_interests=true;
$send_welcome=false;
$email_type = 'html';            
$data = array(
    'email_address'=>$email,
    'apikey'=>$apikey,
    'merge_vars' => $merges,
    'id' => $listId,
    'double_optin' => $double_optin,
    'update_existing' => $update_existing,
    'replace_interests' => $replace_interests,
    'send_welcome' => $send_welcome,
    'email_type' => $email_type
);

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $mailChimpUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json'));      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

Answer 1

Here is working simple MailChimp PHP API 3.0 Curl example code snippet

<?PHP

// put your api key here  note the ending text past the - this is your datacenter 
// the datacenter needs to be added into to the url in the curlopt_url (see below)
$apikey = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-us11"; // my datacenter was "us11"


// listid goes here - to find this... log into mail chimp go to Lists menu , 
// look to far right of list name for a drop down arrow, select the "Settings" dropdown,
// scroll to bottom and look  for  "Unique id for list"
$list_id = "xxxxxxxxxx"; // web site list


// the data I used to register (there may be others you can use, check API docs)
$email = "<<email_address_to_register>>";
$fname = "<<first_name>>";
$lname = "<<last_name>>";


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


// Notice the value of 'status' is 'pending'  
// I found this via a google search indicating a double opt in subscription process 

$data = array(
'apikey'        => $apikey,
'email_address' => $email,
'status'        => 'pending',
'merge_fields'  => array(
'FNAME' => $fname,
'LNAME' => $lname,
)
);
$json_data = json_encode($data);

$ch = curl_init();

// notice datacenter  "us11" comes after the // - make sure you update this to your datacenter (e.g. us2, us7 etc) or you'll get the "wrong datacenter" error.
$curlopt_url = "https://us11.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/lists/$list_id/members/";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $curlopt_url);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json',
    'Authorization: Basic '.$auth));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'PHP-MCAPI/3.0');
curl_setopt($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);
/*
// some debug statements 
var_dump($result);
print_r ($result);
*/


// here is simple way to determine status of a subscription
// $result is in JSON format
// this following loop is a simple JSON decode loop I found via google


 $status = "undefined";
    $msg = "unknown error occurred";
$myArray = json_decode($result, true);

foreach($myArray as $key => $value)
{

    // debug key<<< = >>>$value<<< <br>";

    if( $key == "status" )
    {
        $status=$value;
        //debug                 echo" status found $status<Br>";
    }
    else if ($key == "title")
    {
        $msg=$value;
        //debug                 echo" title found $msg<Br>";
    }


}

// create the output that gets displayed or returned if invoked by AJAX method
if( $status == "pending" )
{
    $msg = "Success! <br>$email has been subscribed <Br>check your inbox for the confirmation email to complete your subscription";
}
else
{
    $msg = "Sorry can not subscribe email $email <br>$msg <Br>";
}


echo "$msg <br>";


die(' '); // frees up mem etc..

?>

Answer 2

As I mentioned in my comment, you should consider the latest 2.0 API. Aside from that, this is code I am using in a production environment.

Albeit messy, it is functional. Just replace the merge_vars and variables with what yours are All the $lead variables are being pulled elsewhere in the script... Not relevant to this. You should still be able to get the idea. ;)

If something still isn't being saved, then you have a typo somewhere. Check EVERYTHING. Took me an hour once to realize I had misspelled 'merge_vars' .

$merge_vars=array(
    'OPTIN_IP'=>$ip, // Use their IP (if avail)
    'OPTIN-TIME'=>"now", // Must be something readable by strtotime...
    'FNAME'=>ucwords(strtolower(trim($lead['first_name']))),
    'LNAME'=>ucwords(strtolower(trim($lead['last_name']))),
    'COMPANY'=>ucwords(strtolower(trim($lead['company']))),
    'ORGTYPE'=>ucwords(strtolower(trim($lead['company_type']))),
    'PLANNING'=>strtolower(trim(empty($lead['planning_stage'])?"Unknown":$lead['planning_stage'])),
    );

$send_data=array(
    'email'=>array('email'=>$lead['email']),
    'apikey'=>"", // Your Key
    'id'=>"", // Your proper List ID
    'merge_vars'=>$merge_vars,
    'double_optin'=>false,
    'update_existing'=>true,
    'replace_interests'=>false,
    'send_welcome'=>false,
    'email_type'=>"html",
);

$payload=json_encode($send_data);
$submit_url="https://us4.api.mailchimp.com/2.0/lists/subscribe.json";
$ch=curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$submit_url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,true);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST,true);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$payload);
$result=curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$mcdata=json_decode($result);

if (!empty($mcdata->error)) return "Mailchimp Error: ".$mcdata->error;
return ""; // <-- This was obviously from within a function. If you made it here, it was a success

Answer 3

For anyone looking for an updated way to do this, there is a really good package; https://github.com/spatie/laravel-newsletter

You can install it via composer, and it is really simple to set up and use:

use Newsletter;

Newsletter::subscribe('test@mail.com');

Answer 4

The previous answers didnt work and I have to adapt them, here the one working :

<?PHP
$apikey = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-us20";  // found in Account -> extra
$list_id = "xxxxxxxxx"; // found in Audience -> audience id

$email = $_POST["email"];

$data = array(
'apikey'        => $apikey,
'email_address' => $email,
'status'        => 'subscribed',
);

// Setup cURL
$ch = curl_init('https://us20.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/lists/'.$list_id.'/members/');
curl_setopt_array($ch, array(
    CURLOPT_POST => TRUE,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => TRUE,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
        'Authorization: apikey '.$apikey,
        'Content-Type: application/json'
    ),
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($data)
));

$response = curl_exec($ch);

$status = "undefined";
$msg = "unknown error occurred";
$myArray = json_decode($response, true);

foreach($myArray as $key => $value){
    if( $key == "status" ){
        $status=$value;
    }
    else if ($key == "title"){
        $msg=$value;
    }
}

if( $status == "subscribed" ){
    $msg = "Success";
} else {
    $msg = "Sorry can not subscribe email $email <br>$msg <Br>";
}

echo "$msg";

die(' '); // frees up mem etc..
?>