After going through the documentation, I still don't know what this module can do for us. Please someone provide some help and a starting guide for this project.

Comments

levelos’s picture

levelos commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)

The project home page, http://drupal.org/project/mailchimp, provides a fairly detailed description of what the module does.

luco’s picture

luco commented
Status: Closed (won't fix) » Active

I aggree with eusofzay. MailChimp itself is pretty straightforward, but how do we integrate with Drupal?

I don't even know where to find the API key. and how can I be sure the form created with MC will show up on my website?

also, linking to the project page isn't helpful at all: if we're here, we've already been there. I've read it, but it's a list of features with no link to any documentation whatsoever.

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Version: 7.x-2.0-alpha2 » 7.x-2.x-dev

How does one actually use this module? I wanted something to let me add a "subscibe to our newsletter" link on my client's site. Can I do that with this module? I've read all I can find off the project home page and can't find anything that actually tells you how to use the module. Was hoping it created simple newsletter subscription forms at least. Am I suppose to write my own module and use this as an API? If so, that's fine but where is the documentation on how to call any actions? Forgive me if I'm totally missing something.

Cheers,
Bruce

luco’s picture

luco commented

@bruceclothier I've looked around and discovered how to enable that. please let me know more about your issue and I may be able to help you.

by the way you have an account with MailChimp, right?

please be aware that I'm still running D6 because of project restrictions.

alternatively you can try Simplenews module.

cheers,
Luciano

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Hey Luciano,

I just don't know how to use it. I followed the instructions on installing I can see that it is talking to my client's Mailchimp account fine after I put in the API key, I just don't know what to do now. All I want is a simple "subscribe to our newsletter" form. I think I may have to go to Mailchimp API documentation to do that, but if so I don't see the point of the module, why don't I just create my own thing to do that. I've integrated Drupal sites with iContact, Constant Contact, and a host of other things and every time its a matter of a less than 10 lines of code to make it work using those companies' APIs once you've read the documentation (that is for adding contacts to those services so very simple needs), so I bet Mailchimp is the same, I just didn't want to spend the hours working it out, was hoping that it was all here in this module ready and working for me.

Thanks for response,
Bruce

EDIT: I have now started chopping through this modules code and have found some functions like "mailchimp_subscribe_user($list, $email, $merge_vars, $message = TRUE, $mcapi = NULL)" which looks promising, now I just need to work out what variables are expected. $merge_vars for instance - which I see in Mailchimp is left blank in some of their examples...

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Right. Giving up trying to work this module out, for anyone else wanting to know another more documented way: go to mailchimp and download their API class: http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/api/downloads/#php. Then put that folder into your project folder and add this line to your settings.php: ini_set("include_path", ".:/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/my-project/mailchimp-api-class"); Note that this is installing on a MAC under MAMP so your include path may vary. If you don't know the doc root on your production site just create a php info file and drop it into your root through ftp and then navigate to it on your browser and look for the Document Root - that is what you will use in the include path. Alternatively if you are writing your own module just put the class file in your module file.

Once you have that setup just use this code:

require("MCAPI.class.php");
$apikey = "xxxxxxx"; // get from Mailchimp
$mcapi = new MCAPI($apikey);

And you are off. There is pretty good documentation on Mailchimp for this class (http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/api/1.3/), and if you can't be bothered going there, just go into the code, it is pretty well commented.

Note: If you can work this mailchimp module out it will be a much better solution than mine as it deals with watchdog entries etc, I just haven't time to work out how to use it. To the writers of the module: looks awesome, please add some documentation somewhere and make it more obvious to people like me who are clearly too blind and impatient to find it.

luco’s picture

luco commented

@bruceclothier
sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. for what I could gather, you have to go to mailchimp.com to create a list and get the API key.

then come back to your Drupal website, look for MailChimp settings (admin/settings/mailchimp) and you'll see your list under "MailChimp Subscription Lists". also that's the page where you paste your API key.

then go to admin/build/blocks and choose a region to enable the block which corresponds to your list. that's how I did it, but in D6.

@levelos
it's impressive that a service with such a nice, polished website like MailChimp would be so obnoxious and careless about their documentation in an affiliate place like its Drupal project page. it's like they're thinking that's not their problem. I don't know if you have anything to do with them, but at the very least you got in the way without helping.

levelos’s picture

levelos commented

@luco, MailChimp has nothing to do with the contents of the Drupal module or project page. I'll readily admit that the documentation is lacking and we're working on that in subsequent releases. That said, your comment is a bit out of line and certainly not one that will get you much help. There are 5000 reported installs of this module, so clearly the instructions are enough for some folks to figure things out. Regardless, we'll be working on a maintenance release this month and will include a bit more documentation.

luco’s picture

luco commented

@levelos, thanks for the renewed effort for more docs on future releases. don't get me wrong, your development is appreciated.

sorry if I seemed harsh, but you closed the issue without providing adequate help early on. that makes the issue harder to find, therefore help is less probable to come our way.

(by "adequate" I mean something that would make us reply "thanks, that worked for me" etc.)

I understand that a clean issue queue is desirable; but if 5000 people get this working, that doesn't mean there won't be 5000 others silently dumping this module in favour of other solutions.

it's both a matter of marketing and usability. open source isn't an excuse to rule either out.

seanberto’s picture

seanberto commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Hi guys,

My name is Sean Larkin. I'm the business partner of Lev Tyspin (levelos) and the co-maintainer of this module. I generally provide more of the support services (paid as well as contributed) around our company's work. Lev is our over-taxed lead engineer. ;)

A couple of points:

* There seems to be growing confusion and frustration within the Drupal forums and project issue queues. This is no one's fault - as Drupal grows, we're finding as a community that it's more and more difficult to meet everyone's needs with the communication tools that are currently in place. Generally speaking, for modules with large installation bases, such as this one, the project queue is a place for technical discussion. As a result, busy module developers often close tickets quickly with short responses. This isn't anything personal - just a matter of folks being busy. I bring this up just to make sure that we're all on the same page: Project queue communication is hard. Folks are reading these tickets with very different levels of experience. We all have to give each other the benefit of the doubt. We all have to respect each other's contribution to the community. Positive conversation is a contribution.

* Luco, Lev and I both appreciate your recommendation that we provide better documentation. In all honesty though, you're tone isn't helpful in this thread. Calling anyone or any organization "so obnoxious", for any reason, on any ticket or forum post on Drupal.org, isn't constructive. (See: http://drupal.org/forum-posting#flames and http://drupal.org/forum-posting#honey.)

* Further, I think that the original ticket thread has been inadvertently hijacked as a result of all of us (Luco, Bruce, Lev, etc.) being busy. The original ticket asked for a description of the module's features - which are, in fact, described on the project summary. Luco, you're right that it would be helpful to provide additional documentation re: the set up and configuration of the module - but that's different from the original intention of this thread as far as we could tell. There are a lot of distinct questions in this ticket. There's also questions that pertain to different versions of the module. It's a bit of a mess. In my opinion, this ticket is not a positive place to move the module, or people's understanding of its usage, forward.

Lev and I've talked, and we'd like to apologize if we've frustrated or offended anyone on this ticket. At the same time, we do need to close out this ticket - again, b/c it's just not constructive.

I've gone ahead and created a new ticket: #1272702: Develop installation and usage guide for this module to track the development of documentation re: the installation and configuration of this module. It would be great if you could "subscribe" (ie, add the comment "subscribe" to the ticket - yet another example of these tools posing challenges...) to the new ticket to follow our documentation efforts - as well as help us "test" the documentation.

I hope this makes sense. If you have any further thoughts on this, feel free to direct message me through my Drupal.org contact form. Again, we (ThinkShout) do need to let this ticket thread die. So, join in on the discussion in #1272702: Develop installation and usage guide for this module!!

Respectfully,
Sean Larkin
ThinkShout.com
760.223.0589

seanberto’s picture

seanberto commented
Status: Closed (fixed) » Closed (duplicate)