Layout and Documentation

In the previous video, we talked about a variety of ways you could use 0:00 the MailChimp API to perform a specific task or automate a specific workflow. 0:03 Typically, each of these tasks represent a single resource within MailChimp, and 0:09 have their own URL, called an endpoint. 0:13 For example, if you wanted to get a list of your campaigns, 0:16 you'd use the campaigns endpoint. 0:19 The campaigns end point is located 0:23 at https://us10.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/campa- 0:26 igns where us10 is my specific data center. 0:33 This will vary account by account, but API keys end with a dash, us, and a number. 0:39 The US number is your data center. 0:44 3.0 describes the version of the API we're using and 0:46 campaigns describes the resource we're using. 0:50 For more complex workflows, you may need to interact with multiple API endpoints. 0:52 In our API documentation, we lay out all available HTTP verbs and 0:58 their actions, their individual requirements, and what they should return. 1:02 We also give you some details about specific error messages 1:08 that could be returned if something is missing from the request, 1:11 such as a missing campaign subject line, or if the resource is not available for 1:14 a particular reason, such as the campaign was deleted. 1:18 You can see all of our API documentation at the link included in the teacher's 1:23 notes below. 1:26 With the new version of the API, 1:29 we're also giving each endpoint an associated JSON schema. 1:31 This schema file acts like a road map, 1:35 explaining what data is required on input, and what data can expected on the return. 1:37 Each schema also contains a list of links, 1:42 that will include other related endpoints and aiding with discovery. 1:44 Previous versions of the MailChimp API used individual methods for 1:49 specific tasks. 1:52 For example, to subscribe a new member to a list, 1:53 you'd look at the documentation for the method, list subscribe or list/subscribe. 1:56 With the new version of our API, we're taking a slightly different approach. 2:01 MailChimp's API is based on rest standards. 2:06 Which means that HTTP verbs carry a different set of instructions to 2:09 MailChimp. 2:13 The MailChimp API accepts get, post, patch and delete requests. 2:14 Each of these requests interacts with a resource in a different way. 2:21 For example, if you want to retrieve information from MailChimp, 2:27 such as report data or a list of your subscribers, you can make a get request. 2:30 To create a new resource or item by creating a new campaign or 2:35 adding a new subscriber to your list, you'll make a post request. 2:39 Patch requests are used to update existing items in MailChimp, like modifying your 2:45 list information, or changing an editable section of a campaign. 2:49 With a patch request, we'll only update the information that you send us. 2:53 If you're unfamiliar with how to make a specific type of request, 2:58 there are a number of sites, applications, and resources that can help you, 3:01 such as web sniffer, an online web app, or postman, which is a plug-in for Chrome. 3:05 Those links are included in the teacher's notes below. 3:11 For this course, we'll just be covering the list resource. 3:14 But we've tried to make nearly every aspect of MailChimp's interface 3:18 accessible via the API. 3:21 This includes the often requested ability to create a list within an account 3:23 programmatically. 3:27 For those of you with programming experience we have a variety of wrappers 3:29 available for previous versions of our API. 3:32 Check out the teachers notes included below. 3:34 If you built an API wrapper for 3:37 the new version of our API, drop us a line at the link in teachers notes below. 3:39 We'll happily list your work on that page. 3:43 If you built something else cool with the API we'd love to hear about that too. 3:46

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