Drupal MailChimp module Configuration Tutorial
To integrate MailChimp into your Drupal site and Drupal accounts you we need to configure it first. Here’s a step by step tutorial on how to do that.
Create a MailChimp account
You need a MailChimp account for this tutorial, so you’ll have to create one first.You’ll get $30 of MonkeyReward credits added to your MailChimp account once you become a paid MailChimp customer and signed up through this link http://eepurl.com/txB6H. Signup is Free, and MailChimp has a Forever Free plan where you can send 12,000 emails per month for free if you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers.
Setup a MailChimp list
If you haven’t done so already, create a list in MailChimp. MailChimp created a neat tutorial about how to do that. http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-do-i-create-a-new-list
Create the MailChimp API Key
In your MailChimp account go to ‘account’ in the top menu and click ‘API Keys & Authorised’ Apps and hit the blue(ish) ‘Add A Key’ button. An API key will be added. Label it with the name of the website you’ll use it on, so you won’t get confused what key to disable if it’s necessary to prevent one of your Drupal sites from accessing your MailChimp account. More on API keys at this MailChimp page about API keys.
Download & Enable Module & MCAPI classes
Download MailChimp module and Libraries module to your module directory.And put MailChimps MCAPI class and readme.txt in your libraries/mailchimp folder (you can download them from here)http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/api/downloads/mailchimp-api-class.zipA more detailed instruction about these steps can be found in the modules’ readme.txt
Enable the MailChimp Modules
Download the latest stable version of the MailChimp module and enable it at example.com/admin/modules. Also make sure to enable the MailChimp Lists module.
Enter the API Key
Go to example.com/admin/config/services/mailchimp and paste the API Key you created in your MailChimp account. Don’t forget to hit the ‘Save Configuration’ button.
Refresh the MailChimp lists
Now go to example.com/admin/config/services/mailchimp/lists and FIRST hit the ‘Refresh lists from MailChimp’ button. It is very important to do that first as this will get the latest details about the lists you’ve setup in your MailChimp account to your Drupal site.
It will tell you ‘MailChimp Lists refreshed’ and 'Back to my lists' - click the text ‘my lists’.You will return to the example.com/admin/config/services/mailchimp/lists page.That page will not yet show you your MailChimp list. You have to setup the list in Drupal first.Let’s do that now.
Add a List (a.k.a. Configuring your MailChimp list in Drupal)
On example.com/admin/config/services/mailchimp/lists hit the ‘Add a List’ button.Enter a label and have a look at these settings and choose the one that fits your needs. Make sure to try different options on a test server first if you are not familiar with them.
List Settings - Type of list
Required lists forces all of a sites’ users to subscribe to the MailChimp list.Optional lists allow people to subscribe during registration or to subscribe/unsubscribe from within their Drupal account page.Free form lists allow you to signup anonymous users too.
List Settings - Settings
Require subscribers to Double Opt-in
Double opt-in users are subscribed to your list once they confirm the email link, single opt-in subscribers don’t have to confirm anything, and are subscribed right away.
Show subscription options on the user registration form
Set the list type to ‘optional’ and you can check this box to make a list signup checkbox appear on the user registration form. Also make sure to check the ‘authenticated role’ in the Roles section of the list settings.
It may need a bit of styling to position it correctly depending on the Drupal theme you use.
Show Subscription Options on User Edit Screen
This will allow users of your site to view and edit their subscription options from their user account screen. A tab with ‘Newsletter Subscriptions’ will appear like shown below:
Include interest groups on subscription form
MailChimp Groups allow you to put List subscribers in to interest groups and allow you to segment email campaigns based on that. The setting shown here allows you to show the list group settings to the user.
If your goal is to segment list subscribers based on eCommerce data, have a look at my tutorial on how to setup MailChimp with Drupal Commerce, and my tutorial about how you can segment lists based on Drupal Commerce data.
Enable MailChimp webhooks for this list
MailChimp module caches the users list subscription in the Drupal database. Check this box if you want to automatically update that information when the user unsubscribes from a link in a campaign you sent.
MailChimp List Settings
MailChimp List
This lists all the MailChimp lists from your MailChimp account. Select the MailChimp list you want to use for your Drupal site.
MailChimp List Merge Fields
The merge fields allow you to select what Drupal input fields will be connected (and submitted) to the MailChimp list fields. The fields you’ve added to the MailChimp list from within your MailChimp account will be listed here too. MailChimp has a tutorial on how to add fields to your MailChimp list.
And don't forget to save.
That's it
This concludes setting up the basic steps for Drupal MailChimp module. If you’d like to integrate MailChimp with Drupal Commerce take a look at the tutorial about integrating MailChimp with Drupal Commerce by applying Commerce MailChimp module.
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