Mailchimp Connector for C#

Read / write MailChimp Campaigns, Lists, Members, Reports and more in without coding.

In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate Mailchimp data in C#. We will use high-performance Mailchimp Connector to easily connect to Mailchimp and then access the data inside C#.

Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that!

Download Documentation

Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from Mailchimp using C# we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from Mailchimp. We will later be able to read data using C#. Perform these steps:

  1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

  2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

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

    ZappySys API Driver
    Create new User DSN for ZappySys API Driver
    • Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
    • Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.
  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.

    Steps how to get and use Mailchimp credentials
    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!

    Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

    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
    Steps how to get and use Mailchimp credentials
    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!

    Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

    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. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

    ZappySys API Driver - Mailchimp
    Read / write MailChimp Campaigns, Lists, Members, Reports and more in without coding.
    MailchimpDSN
    Open Query Builder in API ODBC Driver to read and write data to REST API
  7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in C# to retrieve data from Mailchimp. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

    SELECT * FROM Campaigns
    Configure table/endpoint parameters in ODBC data source based on API Driver
    Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the Mailchimp API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.
  8. 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 C#:

    ZappySys API Driver - Mailchimp
    Read / write MailChimp Campaigns, Lists, Members, Reports and more in without coding.
    MailchimpDSN
    SELECT * FROM Campaigns
    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).
  9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Read data in C#

Using ODBC DSN

  1. Create a new Console project and use this code to read the data:

    "MailchimpDSN";
    Make ZappySys Driver call in c#

  2. Press F5 to run the code and read the data:
    ZappySys Driver Output in c#

  3. Here is the code in text format:

    using System;
    using System.Data.Odbc;
    
    namespace ConsoleApp {
        class Program {
            static void Main() {
                var dsn = "MailchimpDSN";
                using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(String.Format("DSN={0}", dsn)))
                {
                    conn.Open();
                    var cmd = new OdbcCommand("SELECT * FROM Products", conn);
                    
                    //Increase the timeout duration from the default 30 seconds, which may be insufficient in certain scenarios
                    cmd.CommandTimeout=600; // 600-Seconds
                    
                    var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                    while (rdr.Read())
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < rdr.FieldCount; i++)
                        {
                                Console.Write("{0}\t", rdr[i]);
                        }
                        Console.WriteLine();
                    }
                }
                Console.ReadKey();
            }
        }
    }
    

Using a full ODBC connection string

If you want to avoid being dependent on a DSN and creating multiple DSNs for each platform (x86, x64), then you can use a fully qualified connection string. Simply go to your DSN and copy the Connection String:

  1. Open ODBC data source configuration and click Copy settings:
    ZappySys API Driver - Configuration [Version: 2.0.1.10418]
    ZappySys API Driver - Mailchimp
    Read / write MailChimp Campaigns, Lists, Members, Reports and more in without coding.
    MailchimpDSN
    Copy connection string for ODBC application
  2. The window opens, telling us the connection string was successfully copied to the clipboard: Successful connection string copying for ODBC application
  3. Then in your C# code, pass the connection string as an argument when calling the OdbcConnection object's constructor, for example:

    var connectionString = @"DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};ServiceUrl=https://[$DataCenter$].api.mailchimp.com;Provider=MailChimp;ScopeSeparator={space};";
    
    using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(connectionString))
    {
        // your code goes here
    }

Limitations of using a full connection string

Despite using a full ODBC connection string may be very convenient it comes with a limitation: it's length is limited to 1024 symbols (or sometimes more). It usually happens when API provider generates a very long Refresh Token when OAuth is at play. If you are using such a long ODBC connection string, you may get this error:

"Connection string exceeds maximum allowed length of 1024"

But there is a solution to this by storing the full connection string in a file. Follow the steps below to achieve this:

  1. Open your ODBC data source.
  2. Click Copy settings button to copy a full connection string (see the previous section on how to accomplish that).
  3. Then create a new file, let's say, in C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt.
  4. Continue by pasting the copied connection string into a newly created file and save it.
  5. Finally, the last step! Just construct a shorter ODBC connection string using this format:
    DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};SettingsFile=C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt
  6. Our troubles are over! Now you should be able to use this connection string in C# with no problems.
This feature requires ODBC PowerPack v1.9.0 or later.

Actions supported by Mailchimp Connector

Learn how to perform common Mailchimp actions directly in C# with these how-to guides:

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Mailchimp in C# and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to Mailchimp, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download Mailchimp Connector for C# and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.

Download Mailchimp Connector for C# Documentation

More integrations

Other connectors for C#

All
Big Data & NoSQL
Database
CRM & ERP
Marketing
Collaboration
Cloud Storage
Reporting
Commerce
API & Files

Other application integration scenarios for Mailchimp

All
Data Integration
Database
BI & Reporting
Productivity
Programming Languages
Automation & Scripting
ODBC applications

  • How to connect Mailchimp in C#?

  • How to get Mailchimp data in C#?

  • How to read Mailchimp data in C#?

  • How to load Mailchimp data in C#?

  • How to import Mailchimp data in C#?

  • How to pull Mailchimp data in C#?

  • How to push data to Mailchimp in C#?

  • How to write data to Mailchimp in C#?

  • How to POST data to Mailchimp in C#?

  • Call Mailchimp API in C#

  • Consume Mailchimp API in C#

  • Mailchimp C# Automate

  • Mailchimp C# Integration

  • Integration Mailchimp in C#

  • Consume real-time Mailchimp data in C#

  • Consume real-time Mailchimp API data in C#

  • Mailchimp ODBC Driver | ODBC Driver for Mailchimp | ODBC Mailchimp Driver | SSIS Mailchimp Source | SSIS Mailchimp Destination

  • Connect Mailchimp in C#

  • Load Mailchimp in C#

  • Load Mailchimp data in C#

  • Read Mailchimp data in C#

  • Mailchimp API Call in C#