How to use IBM App Connect with Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing service that helps you to design and send email newsletters, invitations, reminders, and more, to contacts in your lists. (In the Mailchimp UI, lists are referred to as audiences. A Mailchimp audience is used to collect and manage your subscribed, nonsubscribed, and unsubscribed contacts.)
The following information describes how to use IBM® App Connect to connect Mailchimp to your other applications.
Supported product and API versions
To find out which product and API versions this connector supports, see Detailed System Requirements on the IBM Support page.
Connecting to Mailchimp
To connect App Connect to a Mailchimp account that you want App Connect to use, you need the following connection details:
| Authorization method | Connection field | Description | Applicability |
|---|---|---|---|
| BASIC OAUTH | Access token | The OAuth 2.0 Access Token for authentication. Tip: For more information about
generating an access token, see Access Data on Behalf of Other Users with OAuth 2 in the Mailchimp developer documentation.
|
App Connect in containersand App Connect Enterprise as a Service |
| OAUTH 2.0 AUTH CODE |
Tip: Authorize connection to Mailchimp by signing
in to your account.
|
App Connect Enterprise as a Service |
To obtain the connection values for Mailchimp, see Obtaining connection values for Mailchimp.
To connect to a Mailchimp endpoint from the App Connect Designer page (previously the Catalog page) for the first time, expand Mailchimp, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.
- If you don't have a Mailchimp account, you can create one to try Mailchimp for free.
Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Applications and APIs page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.
What to consider first
Before you use App Connect Designer with Mailchimp, take note of the following considerations:
- (General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and
actions that are available on the Applications and APIs page of the App Connect Designer.
For some applications, the events and actions depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.
- (General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.
- Before you add some of the Mailchimp events or actions to
your flow, make sure that you have the following resources:
- If you choose the
New Member
event to trigger your flow, you must specify the name of an existing Mailchimp list; that's the list that App Connect monitors for new members. - If you add the
Add member to list
action to your flow, you must have an existing list in Mailchimp so that App Connect can add a member to that list. - If you add the 'Create campaign' action to your flow, you must have an existing list of members for App Connect to send your campaign to.
- If you choose the
Events and actions
Mailchimp events
These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.
| Object | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Campaigns | New campaign | Triggers when a campaign is created |
| Lists | New lists | Triggers when a list is created |
| Members | New subscriber | Triggers when a member is created |
Mailchimp actions
Your flow completes these actions on this application.
| Object | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign folders | Create campaign folder | Creates a new campaign folder in Mailchimp |
| Delete campaign folders | Deletes a specific campaign folder | |
| Retrieve campaign folders | Retrieves information about a specific folder used to organize campaigns in Mailchimp account | |
| Campaign reports | Retrieve campaign reports | Gets the report details for a specific sent campaign in Mailchimp |
| Campaigns | Create campaign | Creates a Mailchimp campaign |
| Retrieve campaigns | Retrieves information about a specific campaign in your Mailchimp account | |
| Files | Create file | Uploads a new image or file to the File Manager in Mailchimp |
| Retrieve files | Retrieves information about a specific file in the File Manager in your Mailchimp account | |
| Folders | Create folder | Creates a new folder in the File Manager in Mailchimp |
| Delete folder | Deletes a specific folder in the File Manager | |
| Retrieve folders | Retrieves information about a folder in the File Manager in your Mailchimp account | |
| Interest categories | Create interest category | Creates a new interest category in your Mailchimp account |
| Retrieve interest categories | Retrieves information about a specific interest category in your Mailchimp account | |
| Interests | Create interest | Creates a new interest or ‘group name’ for a specific category in Mailchimp |
| Retrieve interests | Retrieves interests or ‘group names’ for a specific category in your Mailchimp account | |
| Lists | Create list | Creates a subscriber list in Mailchimp |
| Delete list | Deletes a list from your Mailchimp account | |
| Retrieve lists | Retrieves information about a specific list in your Mailchimp account | |
| Members | Add subscriber to a list | Adds a member to the subscriber list |
| Retrieve members | Retrieves information about a specific list member, including a currently subscribed, unsubscribed, or bounced member | |
| Recipient reports | Retrieve campaign recipient reports | Retrieves information about a specific campaign recipient in your Mailchimp account |
| Segments | Retrieve segments | Retrieves information about a campaign segment in Mailchimp |
Examples
Use templates to quickly create flows for Mailchimp
Learn how to use App Connect templates to quickly create flows that complete actions on Mailchimp. For example, go to the Discover page and search for Mailchimp.
