Mailchimp Connector for Tableau : Get list members via SQL

Learn how to get list members using the Mailchimp Connector for Tableau. 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!

Mailchimp ODBC Driver Powering this integration

High performance
Bidirectional
Low-code / No-code
Easy to use

Built on the ZappySys API Driver, the Mailchimp ODBC Driver is a high-performance, low-code / no-code solution. It enables you to connect to Mailchimp data without any coding right in your SQL Server, or any ODBC/JDBC application. Part of the ODBC PowerPack.

Documentation

Create data source using Mailchimp ODBC Driver

Download and install ODBC PowerPack (if you haven't already).
Search for odbc and open the ODBC Data Sources (64-bit):
Create a User data source (User DSN) based on the ZappySys API Driver driver:

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
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

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:

Login into your Mailchimp account, click on your Profile Icon, and hit Account & billing:
Navigate to the Registered Apps page in your Mailchimp account:
Click Register An App button:
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.
After successfully registering your application, you'll see the Client ID and Client Secret, record these values and store them securely:
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.
Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source OAuth authentication configuration.
Proceed by entering the data center into the Data Center field that was recorded in the previous step.
Then enter the Client ID value into the Client ID field that you recorded in the previous step.
Enter the Client Secret value into the Client Secret field that was recorded in the previous step.
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.
Finally, hit the Test Connection button at the bottom of the window to verify proper connectivity with your Mailchimp account.
If the connection test succeeds, select OK.
Done! Now you can use Mailchimp Connector!

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to OAuth [OAuth]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Press Generate Token button to generate the tokens.
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)::

Login into your Mailchimp account, click on your Profile Icon, and hit Account & billing:
Navigate to the API keys page in your Mailchimp account:
In the Your API keys section of the page, click Create A Key button:
Give your new key a descriptive name that will remind you which application it's used for:
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):
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.
Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source ApiKey Auth authentication configuration.
Proceed by entering the data center into the Data Center field that was recorded in the previous step.
Then enter the API key into the Api Key field that you copied earlier.
Finally, click the Test Connection button at the bottom of the window to verify proper connectivity with your Mailchimp account.
Done! Now you can use Mailchimp Connector!

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to ApiKey Auth [Http]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
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

Then go to Preview tab to start building a SQL query.
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
Then simply select the Get List Members endpoint (action).
Continue by configuring the Required parameters. You can also set optional parameters too.
Move on by hitting Preview Data button to preview the results.

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

Get List Members

Required Parameters
List Id	Select the value from the dropdown
Optional Parameters
Email Type
Status
Since Timestamp Opt (Format: 2015-10-21T15:41:36)
Before Timestamp Opt (Format: 2015-10-21T15:41:36)
Since Last Changed (Format: 2015-10-21T15:41:36)
Before Last Changed (Format: 2015-10-21T15:41:36)
Unique Email Id
VIP Only
Interest Category Id
Interest Ids
Interest Match
Since Last Campaign
Unsubscribed Since (Format: 2015-10-21T15:41:36)
Advanced Properties
PagingMaxRowsExpr	$.total_items
PagingMaxRowsDataPathExpr	$.members[*]
PagingMode	ByUrlPath
PagingByUrlAttributeName	{offset}
PagingIncrementBy	1000
PagingByUrlCurrentPage	0

SELECT * FROM get_list_members 
WITH (ListId='e246f7e24d')

Click OK to use built SQL query and close the Query Builder.
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 Tableau:
ZappySys API Driver - Mailchimp

Read and write Mailchimp data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate campaigns, lists, members, and reports — almost no coding required.

MailchimpDSN
```
SELECT * FROM get_list_members 
WITH (ListId='e246f7e24d')
```
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 Tableau data source:

Read members in a list

Gets all members for a specific list. Pass ListId in the WITH clause to target the audience.

SELECT * FROM get_list_members 
WITH (ListId='e246f7e24d')

Read a list member by email

Gets a single member by email address. Pass ListId and Id (email) in the WITH clause.

SELECT * FROM ListMembers 
WITH (ListId='e246f7e24d', Id='test@abc.com')

Read members across all lists

Gets members from all lists by querying ListMembers without ListId. The query scans all lists and fetches members for each; this may return a large result set.

SELECT * FROM ListMembers --scan all lists and then fetch members for each list

Read members in a list (selected columns)

Gets only the columns you specify for members in a list. Pass ListId in the WITH clause and list desired columns in the SELECT clause.

SELECT Id, ListId, EmailAddress, UniqueEmailId, ContactId, FullName, WebId, EmailType, Status, ConsentsToOneToOneMessaging, FirstName, LastName, AddressLine1, AddressLine2, City, State, Zip, Country, Phone, Birthday, StatsAvgOpenRate, StatsAvgClickRate, IpSignup, TimestampSignup, IpOpt, TimestampOpt, MemberRating, LastChanged, Language, Vip, EmailClient, Latitude, Longitude, LocationGmtOff, LocationDstOff, CountryCode, TimeZone, Region, Source, TagsCount, Tags 
FROM ListMembers 
WITH (ListId='e246f7e24d')

get_list_members endpoint belongs to ListMembers 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.

Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.
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'
```
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"
```

Get list members in Tableau via SQL view

Open Tableau Desktop and click File > New.
To create new Connection click More > Microsoft SQL Server > Enter your credentials to connect to SQL Server (in our example before we used john):
Once connection is created for SQL Server we can read Mailchimp data 3 different ways:
1. Query View which contains OPENQUERY to Linked Server for Mailchimp data
2. Use direct SQL Query using OPENQUERY
3. Use Stored Procedure (Mostly useful to parameterize calls
See below example to pull data from Mailchimp in Tableau using SQL View approach:
Once your data sources are created you can click on Sheet1 and drag fields to create visualizations for Tableau Dashboard:

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

Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
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>';
```
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';
```

Conclusion

And there you have it — a complete guide on how to get list members in Tableau 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):

Download Chat

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 Tableau, so you can skip the trial and error. Find your next step-by-step guide below: