Mailchimp Connector for MS Access : Delete list via SQL

Integrate MS Access and Mailchimp
Integrate MS Access and Mailchimp

Learn how to delete list using the Mailchimp Connector for MS Access. This connector enables you to read and write Mailchimp data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate campaigns, lists, members, and reports — almost no coding required. We'll walk you through the exact setup.

Let's dive in!

Create data source using Mailchimp ODBC Driver

  1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack (if you haven't already).

  2. Search for odbc and open the ODBC Data Sources (64-bit):

    Open ODBC Data Source
  3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on the ZappySys API Driver driver:

    ZappySys API Driver
    Create new User DSN for ZappySys API Driver
    • Create and use a User DSN if the client application runs under a User Account. This is the ideal option at design time (e.g., when developing in Visual Studio). Use it for both types of applications (64-bit and 32-bit).
    • Create and use a System DSN if the client application runs under a System Account (e.g., as a Windows Service). This is usually the required option in a production environment. If your Windows Service is a 32-bit application, you must use the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure this
  4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Mailchimp" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Mailchimp" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

    MailchimpDSN
    Mailchimp
    ODBC DSN Template Selection
  5. Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

    Mailchimp authentication
    To get the credentials you need in order to set up your OAuth workflow, you'll first need to register your application with Mailchimp:
    1. Login into your Mailchimp account, click on your Profile Icon, and hit Account & billing: Start by going to Mailchimp account
    2. Navigate to the Registered Apps page in your Mailchimp account: Go to registered OAuth apps in Mailchimp
    3. Click Register An App button: Register new OAuth app in Mailchimp
    4. Fill-in the Register An App form and click Create button: Enter OAuth app details in Mailchimp
      NOTE: For Redirect URI use Redirect URI (also called "Redirect URL" or "Callback URL") given by your IT administrator or just use https://zappysys.com/oauth, if you don't have one.
    5. After successfully registering your application, you'll see the Client ID and Client Secret, record these values and store them securely: Use OAuth app to get Mailchimp data via REST API
    6. Record your Mailchimp data center, since we will need it later. The data center is located in your browser's address bar URL. If the URL is https://us21.admin.mailchimp.com/account/api, then your data center is us21.
    7. Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source OAuth authentication configuration.
    8. Proceed by entering the data center into the Data Center field that was recorded in the previous step.
    9. Then enter the Client ID value into the Client ID field that you recorded in the previous step.
    10. Enter the Client Secret value into the Client Secret field that was recorded in the previous step.
    11. Click Generate Token. If proper authentication occurs, you will see a confirmation notice. If you get an error, click Yes on the dialog box and then a large browser window will launch. Then log into your Mailchimp account and approve the use of the application.
    12. Finally, hit the Test Connection button at the bottom of the window to verify proper connectivity with your Mailchimp account.
    13. If the connection test succeeds, select OK.
    14. Done! Now you can use Mailchimp Connector!
    API Connection Manager configuration

    Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

    1. Set Authentication Type to OAuth [OAuth]
    2. Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
    3. Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
    4. Press Generate Token button to generate the tokens.
    5. Finally, hit OK button:
    MailchimpDSN
    Mailchimp
    OAuth [OAuth]
    https://[$DataCenter$].api.mailchimp.com
    Required Parameters
    Data Center Fill-in the parameter...
    Client Id Fill-in the parameter...
    Client Secret Fill-in the parameter...
    Default List Id Fill-in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    RetryMode RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
    RetryStatusCodeList 429
    RetryCountMax 5
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime True
    ODBC DSN OAuth Connection Configuration
    Mailchimp authentication
    The simplest way to authenticate a request to the Mailchimp Marketing API is by using an API key (If you require access to Mailchimp on behalf of other Mailchimp users, you'll want to set up OAuth authentication instead)::
    1. Login into your Mailchimp account, click on your Profile Icon, and hit Account & billing: Start by going to Mailchimp account
    2. Navigate to the API keys page in your Mailchimp account: Go to API Keys in Mailchimp
    3. In the Your API keys section of the page, click Create A Key button: Create new API Key in Mailchimp
    4. Give your new key a descriptive name that will remind you which application it's used for: Name API Key in Mailchimp
    5. Copy the API key immediately and store it in a secure location (you won't be able to see or copy the key once you finish generating it): Use API Key to get Mailchimp data via REST API
    6. Record your Mailchimp data center, since we will need it later. The data center is located in your browser's address bar URL. If the URL is https://us21.admin.mailchimp.com/account/api, then your data center is us21.
    7. Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source ApiKey Auth authentication configuration.
    8. Proceed by entering the data center into the Data Center field that was recorded in the previous step.
    9. Then enter the API key into the Api Key field that you copied earlier.
    10. Finally, click the Test Connection button at the bottom of the window to verify proper connectivity with your Mailchimp account.
    11. Done! Now you can use Mailchimp Connector!
    API Connection Manager configuration

    Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

    1. Set Authentication Type to ApiKey Auth [Http]
    2. Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
    3. Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
    4. Finally, hit OK button:
    MailchimpDSN
    Mailchimp
    ApiKey Auth [Http]
    https://[$DataCenter$].api.mailchimp.com
    Required Parameters
    Api Key Fill-in the parameter...
    Default List Id Fill-in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    Data Center
    RetryMode RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
    RetryStatusCodeList 429
    RetryCountMax 5
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime True
    ODBC DSN HTTP Connection Configuration

  6. Then go to Preview tab to start building a SQL query.

  7. Once you do that, proceed by opening Query Builder:

    ZappySys API Driver - Mailchimp
    Read and write Mailchimp data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate campaigns, lists, members, and reports — almost no coding required.
    MailchimpDSN
    Open Query Builder in API ODBC Driver to read and write data to REST API
  8. Then simply select the Delete List endpoint (action).

  9. Continue by configuring the Required parameters. You can also set optional parameters too.

  10. Move on by hitting Preview Data button to preview the results.

  11. If you see the results you need, simply copy the generated query:

    Delete List
    Required Parameters
    List Id Select the value from the dropdown
    Advanced Properties
    RawOutputDataRowTemplate
    EnableRawOutputModeSingleRow True
    ContineOnErrorForStatusCode True
    ErrorStatusCodeToMatchRegex 404|405
    DELETE FROM Lists 
    WHERE Id='e246f7e24d'
    Query Builder
  12. Click OK to use built SQL query and close the Query Builder.

  13. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in MS Access:

    ZappySys API Driver - Mailchimp
    Read and write Mailchimp data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate campaigns, lists, members, and reports — almost no coding required.
    MailchimpDSN
    DELETE FROM Lists 
    WHERE Id='e246f7e24d'
    API ODBC Driver-based data source data preview
    You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
    A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Mailchimp API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Mailchimp servers).

Let's not stop here and explore SQL query examples, including how to use them in Stored Procedures and Views (virtual tables) in the next steps.

Mailchimp SQL query examples

Use these SQL queries in your MS Access data source:

Delete list

Deletes a list (audience) by its ID using DELETE FROM Lists WHERE Id='...'. This action cannot be undone.

DELETE FROM Lists 
WHERE Id='e246f7e24d'

delete_list endpoint belongs to Lists table(s), and can therefore be used via those table(s).

Create SQL view in ODBC data source

ZappySys API Drivers support flexible Query language so you can override Default Properties you configured on Data Source such as URL, Body. This way you don't have to create multiple Data Sources if you like to read data from multiple EndPoints. However not every application support supplying custom SQL to driver so you can only select Table from list returned from driver.

If you're dealing with Microsoft Access and need to import data from an SQL query, it's important to note that Access doesn't allow direct import of SQL queries. Instead, you can create custom objects (Virtual Tables) to handle the import process.

Many applications like MS Access, Informatica Designer wont give you option to specify custom SQL when you import Objects. In such case Virtual Table is very useful. You can create many Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (e.g. If you have 50 URLs with slight variations you can create virtual tables with just URL as Parameter setting.

  1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Table

  2. Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Table Name

  3. And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.

  4. Select the created table, Select Text Type AS SQL and write the your desired SQL Query and Save it and it will create the custom table in the ZappySys Driver:
    Here is an example SQL query for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders also. Read more about placeholders here

    SELECT
      "ShipCountry",
      "OrderID",
      "CustomerID",
      "EmployeeID",
      "OrderDate",
      "RequiredDate",
      "ShippedDate",
      "ShipVia",
      "Freight",
      "ShipName",
      "ShipAddress",
      "ShipCity",
      "ShipRegion",
      "ShipPostalCode"
    FROM "Orders"
    Where "ShipCountry"='USA'

    ZappySys Driver - Create Custom Table
  5. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your custom virtual table query. In this example it will extract the orders for the USA Shipping Country only:

    SELECT * FROM "vt__usa_orders_only"
    ZappySys Driver - Execute Custom Virtual Table Query

Delete list in MS Access via SQL view

  1. First of all, open MS Access and create a new MS Access database.

  2. In the next step, start loading ODBC data source we created:

    Load ODBC data source
  3. Then click next until data source selection window appears. Select the data source we created in one of the previous steps and hit OK:

    MailchimpDSN
    DSN selection
  4. Continue with tables and views selection. You can extract multiple tables or views:

    DSN Table Selection
  5. Finally, wait while data is being loaded and once done you should see a similar view:

    In Access DSN Data Loaded

Advanced topics

Creating SQL stored procedures

You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Steps to create Custom Stored Procedure in ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

  1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Stored Procedure

  2. Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Stored Procedure Name

  3. Select the created Stored Procedure and write the your desired stored procedure and Save it and it will create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver. Here is an example stored procedure for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

    CREATE PROCEDURE [usp_get_orders]
        @fromdate = '<<yyyy-MM-dd,FUN_TODAY>>'
     AS
        SELECT * FROM Orders where OrderDate >= '<@fromdate>';
    
    ZappySys Driver - Create Custom Stored Procedure
  4. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your Stored Procedure using Exec Command. In this example it will extract the orders from the date 1996-01-01:

    Exec usp_get_orders '1996-01-01';
    ZappySys Driver - Execute Custom Stored Procedure

Conclusion

And there you have it — a complete guide on how to delete list in MS Access without writing complex code. All of this was powered by Mailchimp ODBC Driver, which handled the REST API pagination and authentication for us automatically.

Download the trial now or ping us via chat if you have any questions or are looking for a specific feature (you can also reach out to us by submitting a ticket):

More actions supported by Mailchimp Connector

Got another use case in mind? We've documented the exact setups for a variety of essential Mailchimp operations directly in MS Access, so you can skip the trial and error. Find your next step-by-step guide below:

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