Mailchimp Connector for PowerShell

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

Step-by-step instructions

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

1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

   

3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver:

   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

   

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.

   OAuth

   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:
   2. Navigate to the Registered Apps page in your Mailchimp account:
   3. Click Register An App button:
   4. Fill-in the Register An App form and click Create button:
      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:
   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

   

   ApiKey Auth

   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:
   2. Navigate to the API keys page in your Mailchimp account:
   3. In the Your API keys section of the page, click Create A Key button:
   4. Give your new key a descriptive name that will remind you which application it's used for:
   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):
   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

   

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

   

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 PowerShell to retrieve data from Mailchimp. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

   SELECT * FROM Campaigns

   
   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 PowerShell:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Mailchimp

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

   MailchimpDSN

   SELECT * FROM Campaigns

   
   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 Mailchimp data in PowerShell

Sometimes, you need to quickly access and work with your Mailchimp data in PowerShell. Whether you need a quick data overview or the complete dataset, this article will guide you through the process. Here are some common scenarios:

• Quickly peek at Mailchimp data
• Monitor data constantly in your console

• Export data to a CSV file so that it can be sliced and diced in Excel
• Export data to a JSON file so that it can ingested by other processes
• Export data to an HTML file for user-friendly view and easy sharing
• Create a schedule to make it an automatic process

• Store data internally for analysis or for further ETL processes
• Create a schedule to make it an automatic process

• Integrate data with other systems via external APIs

In this article, we will delve deeper into how to quickly view the data in PowerShell terminal and how to save it to a file. But let's stop talking and get started!

Reading individual fields

1. Open your favorite PowerShell IDE (we are using Visual Studio Code).

2. Use this code snippet to read the data using MailchimpDSN data source:

   "DSN=MailchimpDSN"

   

   For your convenience, here is the whole PowerShell script:

   # Configure connection string and query
   $connectionString = "DSN=MailchimpDSN"
   $query = "SELECT * FROM Customers"
   
   # Instantiate OdbcDataAdapter and DataTable
   $adapter = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($query, $connectionString)
   $table = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
   
   # Fill the table with data
   $adapter.Fill($table)
   
   # Since we know we will be reading just 4 columns, let's define format for those 4 columns, each separated by a tab
   $format = "{0}`t{1}`t{2}`t{3}"
   
   # Display data in the console
   foreach ($row in $table.Rows)
   {
       # Construct line based on the format and individual Mailchimp fields
       $line = $format -f ($row["CustomerId"], $row["CompanyName"], $row["Country"], $row["Phone"])
       Write-Host $line
   }
   

   Access specific Mailchimp table field using this code snippet:

   $field = $row["ColumnName"]

   You will find more info on how to manipulate DataTable.Rows property in Microsoft .NET reference.
   For demonstration purposes we are using sample tables which may not be available in Mailchimp.

3. To read values in a console, save the script to a file and then execute this command inside PowerShell terminal:

   
   You can also use even a simpler command inside the terminal, e.g.:

   . 'C:\Users\john\Documents\dsn.ps1'

Retrieving all fields

However, there might be case, when you want to retrieve all columns of a query. Here is how you do it:

"DSN=MailchimpDSN"

Again, for your convenience, here is the whole PowerShell script:

# Configure connection string and query
$connectionString = "DSN=MailchimpDSN"
$query = "SELECT CustomerId, CompanyName, Country, Phone FROM Customers"

# Instantiate OdbcDataAdapter and DataTable
$adapter = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($query, $connectionString)
$table = New-Object System.Data.DataTable

# Fill the table with data
$adapter.Fill($table)

# Display data in the console
foreach ($row in $table.Rows) {
    $line = ""
    foreach ($column in $table.Columns) {
        $value = $row[$column.ColumnName]

        # Let's handle NULL values
        if ($value -is [DBNull])
        {
            $value = "(NULL)"
        }
        $line += $value + "`t"
    }
    Write-Host $line
}

SELECT * FROM Customers LIMIT 10

Using a full ODBC connection string

In the previous steps we used a very short format of ODBC connection string - a DSN. Yet sometimes you don't want a dependency on an ODBC data source (and an extra step). In those times, you can define a full connection string and skip creating an ODBC data source entirely. Let's see below how to accomplish that in the below steps:

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

   
2. The window opens, telling us the connection string was successfully copied to the clipboard:
3. Then just paste the connection string into your script:
4. You are good to go! The script will execute the same way as using a DSN.

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 PowerShell with no problems.

Write Mailchimp data to a file in PowerShell

Save data to a CSV file

Export data to a CSV file so that it can be sliced and diced in Excel:

# Configure connection string and query
$connectionString = "DSN=MailchimpDSN"
$query = "SELECT * FROM Customers"

# Instantiate OdbcDataAdapter and DataTable
$adapter = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($query, $connectionString)
$table = New-Object System.Data.DataTable

# Fill the table with data
$adapter.Fill($table)

# Export table data to a file
$table | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter "`t" | Out-File "C:\Users\john\saved-data.csv" -Force

Save data to a JSON file

Export data to a JSON file so that it can ingested by other processes (use the above script, but change this part):

# Export table data to a file
$table | ConvertTo-Json | Out-File "C:\Users\john\saved-data.json" -Force

Save data to an HTML file

Export data to an HTML file for user-friendly view and easy sharing (use the above script, but change this part):

# Export table data to a file
$table | ConvertTo-Html | Out-File "C:\Users\john\saved-data.html" -Force

Centralized data access via Data Gateway

In some situations, you may need to provide Mailchimp data access to multiple users or services. Configuring the data source on a Data Gateway creates a single, centralized connection point for this purpose.

This configuration provides two primary advantages:

• Centralized data access
  The data source is configured once on the gateway, eliminating the need to set it up individually on each user's machine or application. This significantly simplifies the management process.
• Centralized access control
  Since all connections route through the gateway, access can be governed or revoked from a single location for all users.

If you need any of these requirements, you will have to create a data source in Data Gateway to connect to Mailchimp, and to create an ODBC data source to connect to Data Gateway in PowerShell.

Let's not wait and get going!

Creating Mailchimp data source in Gateway

In this section we will create a data source for Mailchimp in Data Gateway. Let's follow these steps to accomplish that:

1. Search for gateway in Windows Start Menu and open ZappySys Data Gateway Configuration:

   

2. Go to Users tab and follow these steps to add a Data Gateway user:

   • Click Add button
   • In Login field enter username, e.g., john
   • Then enter a Password
   • Check Is Administrator checkbox
   • Click OK to save
   

3. Now we are ready to add a data source:

   • Click Add button
   • Give Datasource a name (have it handy for later)
   • Then select Native - ZappySys API Driver
   • Finally, click OK
   MailchimpDSN

   ZappySys API Driver

   

4. When the ZappySys API Driver configuration window opens, configure the Data Source the same way you configured it in ODBC Data Sources (64-bit), in the beginning of this article.

5. Very important step. Now, after creating or modifying the data source make sure you:

   • Click the Save button to persist your changes.
   • Hit Yes, once asked if you want to restart the Data Gateway service.

   This will ensure all changes are properly applied:

   
   Skipping this step may result in the new settings not taking effect and, therefore you will not be able to connect to the data source.

Creating ODBC data source for Data Gateway

In this part we will create ODBC data source to connect to Data Gateway from PowerShell. To achieve that, let's perform these steps:

1. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

   

2. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server:

   ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server

   
   If you don't see ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server driver in the list, choose a similar version driver.

3. Then set a Name of the data source (e.g. Gateway) and the address of the Data Gateway:

   GatewayDSN

   localhost,5000

   
   Make sure you separate the hostname and port with a comma, e.g. localhost,5000.

4. Proceed with authentication part:

   • Select SQL Server authentication
   • In Login ID field enter the user name you used in Data Gateway, e.g., john
   • Set Password to the one you configured in Data Gateway
   

5. Then set the default database property to MailchimpDSN (the one we used in Data Gateway):

   MailchimpDSN

   

6. Continue by checking Trust server certificate option:

   

7. Once you do that, test the connection:

   

8. If connection is successful, everything is good:

   

9. Done!

We are ready to move to the final step. Let's do it!

Accessing data in PowerShell via Data Gateway

Finally, we are ready to read data from Mailchimp in PowerShell via Data Gateway. Follow these final steps:

1. Go back to PowerShell.

2. Use this code snippet to read the data using GatewayDSN data source:

   "DSN=GatewayDSN"

   

   For your convenience, here is the whole PowerShell script:

   # Configure connection string and query
   $connectionString = "DSN=GatewayDSN"
   $query = "SELECT * FROM Customers"
   
   # Instantiate OdbcDataAdapter and DataTable
   $adapter = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($query, $connectionString)
   $table = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
   
   # Fill the table with data
   $adapter.Fill($table)
   
   # Since we know we will be reading just 4 columns, let's define format for those 4 columns, each separated by a tab
   $format = "{0}`t{1}`t{2}`t{3}"
   
   # Display data in the console
   foreach ($row in $table.Rows)
   {
       # Construct line based on the format and individual Mailchimp fields
       $line = $format -f ($row["CustomerId"], $row["CompanyName"], $row["Country"], $row["Phone"])
       Write-Host $line
   }
   

   Access specific Mailchimp table field using this code snippet:

   $field = $row["ColumnName"]

   You will find more info on how to manipulate DataTable.Rows property in Microsoft .NET reference.
   For demonstration purposes we are using sample tables which may not be available in Mailchimp.

3. Read the data the same way we discussed at the beginning of this article.

4. That's it!

Now you can connect to Mailchimp data in PowerShell via the Data Gateway.

Actions supported by Mailchimp Connector

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

• Add New List
• Add New List Member
• Add New List Members in Bulk
• Add or Update Upsert List Members (Bulk Subscribe or Unsubscribe)
• Delete List
• Delete List Member (Archive)
• Delete List Member (Permanent delete)
• Get a Specific Member From All Lists
• Get All Members in All Lists
• Get Campaign Details
• Get List Details
• Get List Member Details
• Get List Members
• Get List of Campaigns
• Get Lists
• Get User Details
• Update List Details
• Update List Member Details
• Make Generic API Request
• Make Generic API Request (Bulk Write)

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Mailchimp in PowerShell and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort.

We encourage you to download Mailchimp Connector for PowerShell 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 PowerShell Documentation

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