Mailchimp API v3.0 add email to list via NodeJS http

Question

I'm using NodeJS to call the new MailChimp 3.0 API in order to add an email to a list. While I can get it working via POSTman, I'm having a hard time with Node's http:

var http = require('http');

var subscriber = JSON.stringify({
    "email_address": "test@test.com", 
    "status": "subscribed", 
    "merge_fields": {
        "FNAME": "Tester",
        "LNAME": "Testerson"
    }
});

var options = {
    host: 'https://us11.api.mailchimp.com',
    path: '/3.0/lists/<myListID>/members',
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': 'randomUser myApiKey',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Content-Length': subscriber.length
    }
}

var hreq = http.request(options, function (hres) {  
    console.log('STATUS CODE: ' + hres.statusCode);
    console.log('HEADERS: ' + JSON.stringify(hres.headers));
    hres.setEncoding('utf8');

    hres.on('data', function (chunk) {
            console.log('\n\n===========CHUNK===============')
            console.log(chunk);
            res.send(chunk);
    });

    hres.on('end', function(res) {
            console.log('\n\n=========RESPONSE END===============');
    });

    hres.on('error', function (e) {
            console.log('ERROR: ' + e.message);
    }); 
});

hreq.write(subscriber);
hreq.end();

Rather than getting even some sort of JSON error from Mailchimp, however, I'm getting HTML: 400 Bad Request

400 Bad Request

nginx

Is it clear at all what I"m doing wrong here? It seems pretty simple, yet nothing I've tried seems to work.

A few additional thoughts:

While http's options have an "auth" property, I'm using the headers instead to ensure the authorization is sent without the encoding (as mentioned here). Still, I've also tried with the "auth" property, and I get the same result.
I'm actually making this call from inside an ExpressJS API (my client calls the Express API, that calls the above code - I've edited all that out of this example for simplicity). That's why my variables are "hres" and "hreq", to distinguish them from the "res" and "req" in Express. Is there any reason that could be the issue?
As mentioned above, I am able to get successful results when using POSTman, so I at least know my host, path, list ID, and API key are correct.

Have you tried using Node's https module? Just a thought. – Derek Soike Oct 02 '15 at 04:26 — Derek Soike, Oct 02 '15 at 04:26

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 02 '15 at 15:07

5

It turns out this had a very simple solution: the "host" property of the options object needed to have only the domain name. IE, remove the "https://" protocol:

var options = {
    host: 'us11.api.mailchimp.com',
    path: '/3.0/lists/<myListID>/members',
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': 'randomUser myApiKey',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Content-Length': subscriber.length
    }
}

answered Oct 02 '15 at 15:07

thehappycactus

151
1
5

I also had to specify protocol: "https:", otherwise I would get connection refused. – Legoless Aug 10 '16 at 04:05

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 15 '18 at 16:11

Try this , its working fine for Me.

var request = require('request');

function mailchimpAddListCall(email, cb){
var subscriber = JSON.stringify({
        "email_address": email,
        "status": "subscribed"
    });

request({
             method: 'POST',
             url: 'https://us13.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/lists/<Your list id>/members',
             body: subscriber,
             headers:
                    {
                        Authorization: 'apikey <your Mailchimp API key>',
                        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
                    }

         },
          function(error, response, body){
            if(error) {
                cb(err, null)
            } else {

                var bodyObj = JSON.parse(body);
                console.log(bodyObj.status);
                if(bodyObj.status === 400){
                    cb(bodyObj.detail, null);
                }
                var bodyObj = JSON.parse(body);
                cb(null, bodyObj.email_address +" added to list.");
            }
        });
}

request is a node module, that you'll need to install into your package.json. npm install --save request

Might be good to define what is request here, because this does not work with built-in require('http') library. — Legoless, Aug 10 '16 at 04:06
@Legoless it's a node module -- npm install request and then var request = require('request') to use it like WAQAR does here — Paul G, Feb 01 '17 at 18:47

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 02 '15 at 06:16

You can use the auth properties just fine with API v3, but if you're getting a 400, that's not the problem. The body of the 400 Error should provide more detailed information, but one thing that jumps out immediately: MailChimp doesn't allow fake or fake-looking emails to be added to lists (like test@test.com), so I'd try a real address and see if that works for you.

Mailchimp API v3.0 add email to list via NodeJS http

400 Bad Request

3 Answers3