AJAX Mailchimp signup form integration

Question

You don't need an API key, all you have to do is plop the standard mailchimp generated form into your code ( customize the look as needed ) and in the forms "action" attribute change post?u= to post-json?u= and then at the end of the forms action append &c=? to get around any cross domain issue. Also it's important to note that when you submit the form you must use GET rather than POST.

Your form tag will look something like this by default:

<form action="http://xxxxx.us#.list-manage1.com/subscribe/post?u=xxxxx&id=xxxx" method="post" ... >

change it to look something like this

<form action="http://xxxxx.us#.list-manage1.com/subscribe/post-json?u=xxxxx&id=xxxx&c=?" method="get" ... >

Mail Chimp will return a json object containing 2 values: 'result' - this will indicate if the request was successful or not ( I've only ever seen 2 values, "error" and "success" ) and 'msg' - a message describing the result.

I submit my forms with this bit of jQuery:

$(document).ready( function () {
    // I only have one form on the page but you can be more specific if need be.
    var $form = $('form');

    if ( $form.length > 0 ) {
        $('form input[type="submit"]').bind('click', function ( event ) {
            if ( event ) event.preventDefault();
            // validate_input() is a validation function I wrote, you'll have to substitute this with your own.
            if ( validate_input($form) ) { register($form); }
        });
    }
});

function register($form) {
    $.ajax({
        type: $form.attr('method'),
        url: $form.attr('action'),
        data: $form.serialize(),
        cache       : false,
        dataType    : 'json',
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        error       : function(err) { alert("Could not connect to the registration server. Please try again later."); },
        success     : function(data) {
            if (data.result != "success") {
                // Something went wrong, do something to notify the user. maybe alert(data.msg);
            } else {
                // It worked, carry on...
            }
        }
    });
}

Based on gbinflames' answer, I kept the POST and URL, so that the form would continue to work for those with JS off.

<form class="myform" action="http://XXXXXXXXXlist-manage2.com/subscribe/post" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="u" value="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX">
  <input type="hidden" name="id" value="XXXXXXXXX">
  <input class="input" type="text" value="" name="MERGE1" placeholder="First Name" required>
  <input type="submit" value="Send" name="submit" id="mc-embedded-subscribe">
</form>

Then, using jQuery's .submit() changed the type, and URL to handle JSON repsonses.

$('.myform').submit(function(e) {
  var $this = $(this);
  $.ajax({
      type: "GET", // GET & url for json slightly different
      url: "http://XXXXXXXX.list-manage2.com/subscribe/post-json?c=?",
      data: $this.serialize(),
      dataType    : 'json',
      contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
      error       : function(err) { alert("Could not connect to the registration server."); },
      success     : function(data) {
          if (data.result != "success") {
              // Something went wrong, parse data.msg string and display message
          } else {
              // It worked, so hide form and display thank-you message.
          }
      }
  });
  return false;
});

You should use the server-side code in order to secure your MailChimp account.

The following is an updated version of this answer which uses PHP:

The PHP files are "secured" on the server where the user never sees them yet the jQuery can still access & use.

1) Download the PHP 5 jQuery example here...

http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/downloads/mcapi-simple-subscribe-jquery.zip

If you only have PHP 4, simply download version 1.2 of the MCAPI and replace the corresponding MCAPI.class.php file above.

http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/downloads/mailchimp-api-class-1-2.zip

2) Follow the directions in the Readme file by adding your API key and List ID to the store-address.php file at the proper locations.

3) You may also want to gather your users' name and/or other information. You have to add an array to the store-address.php file using the corresponding Merge Variables.

Here is what my store-address.php file looks like where I also gather the first name, last name, and email type:

<?php

function storeAddress(){

    require_once('MCAPI.class.php');  // same directory as store-address.php

    // grab an API Key from http://admin.mailchimp.com/account/api/
    $api = new MCAPI('123456789-us2');

    $merge_vars = Array( 
        'EMAIL' => $_GET['email'],
        'FNAME' => $_GET['fname'], 
        'LNAME' => $_GET['lname']
    );

    // grab your List's Unique Id by going to http://admin.mailchimp.com/lists/
    // Click the "settings" link for the list - the Unique Id is at the bottom of that page. 
    $list_id = "123456a";

    if($api->listSubscribe($list_id, $_GET['email'], $merge_vars , $_GET['emailtype']) === true) {
        // It worked!   
        return 'Success!&nbsp; Check your inbox or spam folder for a message containing a confirmation link.';
    }else{
        // An error ocurred, return error message   
        return '<b>Error:</b>&nbsp; ' . $api->errorMessage;
    }

}

// If being called via ajax, autorun the function
if($_GET['ajax']){ echo storeAddress(); }
?>

4) Create your HTML/CSS/jQuery form. It is not required to be on a PHP page.

Here is something like what my index.html file looks like:

<form id="signup" action="index.html" method="get">
    <input type="hidden" name="ajax" value="true" />
    First Name: <input type="text" name="fname" id="fname" />
    Last Name: <input type="text" name="lname" id="lname" />
    email Address (required): <input type="email" name="email" id="email" />
    HTML: <input type="radio" name="emailtype" value="html" checked="checked" />
    Text: <input type="radio" name="emailtype" value="text" />
    <input type="submit" id="SendButton" name="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
<div id="message"></div>

<script src="jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#signup').submit(function() {
        $("#message").html("<span class='error'>Adding your email address...</span>");
        $.ajax({
            url: 'inc/store-address.php', // proper url to your "store-address.php" file
            data: $('#signup').serialize(),
            success: function(msg) {
                $('#message').html(msg);
            }
        });
        return false;
    });
});
</script>

Required pieces...

• index.html constructed as above or similar. With jQuery, the appearance and options are endless.

• store-address.php file downloaded as part of PHP examples on Mailchimp site and modified with your API KEY and LIST ID. You need to add your other optional fields to the array.

• MCAPI.class.php file downloaded from Mailchimp site (version 1.3 for PHP 5 or version 1.2 for PHP 4). Place it in the same directory as your store-address.php or you must update the url path within store-address.php so it can find it.

For anyone looking for a solution on a modern stack:

import jsonp from 'jsonp';
import queryString from 'query-string';

// formData being an object with your form data like:
// { EMAIL: '[email protected]' }

jsonp(`//YOURMAILCHIMP.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe/post-json?u=YOURMAILCHIMPU&${queryString.stringify(formData)}`, { param: 'c' }, (err, data) => {
  console.log(err);
  console.log(data);
});

Based on gbinflames' answer, this is what worked for me:

Generate a simple mailchimp list sign up form , copy the action URL and method (post) to your custom form. Also rename your form field names to all capital ( name='EMAIL' as in original mailchimp code, EMAIL,FNAME,LNAME,... ), then use this:

      $form=$('#your-subscribe-form'); // use any lookup method at your convenience

      $.ajax({
      type: $form.attr('method'),
      url: $form.attr('action').replace('/post?', '/post-json?').concat('&c=?'),
      data: $form.serialize(),
      timeout: 5000, // Set timeout value, 5 seconds
      cache       : false,
      dataType    : 'jsonp',
      contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
      error       : function(err) { // put user friendly connection error message  },
      success     : function(data) {
          if (data.result != "success") {
              // mailchimp returned error, check data.msg
          } else {
              // It worked, carry on...
          }
      }

As for this date (February 2017), it seems that mailchimp has integrated something similar to what gbinflames suggests into their own javascript generated form.

You don't need any further intervention now as mailchimp will convert the form to an ajax submitted one when javascript is enabled.

All you need to do now is just paste the generated form from the embed menu into your html page and NOT modify or add any other code.

This simply works. Thanks MailChimp!