Can not get MailChimp to save my data using the API with Curl

Question

I have tried and tried to send data to MailChimp using curl but cannot get the data to save in MailChimp. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Here is my code:

$mailChimpUrl = "http://us2.api.mailchimp.com/1.3/?method=listSubscribe";
$merges = array(
    'FNAME'=>'Dave', 
    'LNAME'=>'Gilmour',
    'BUILDING'=>'Central High School',
    'MMERGE17' => '35904',
    'MMERGE12'=>'Yes'
);

$apikey="myrealapiishere-us2";
$listId="myrealformidishere";
$email="[email protected]";
$double_optin=true;
$update_existing=false;
$replace_interests=true;
$send_welcome=false;
$email_type = 'html';            
$data = array(
    'email_address'=>$email,
    'apikey'=>$apikey,
    'merge_vars' => $merges,
    'id' => $listId,
    'double_optin' => $double_optin,
    'update_existing' => $update_existing,
    'replace_interests' => $replace_interests,
    'send_welcome' => $send_welcome,
    'email_type' => $email_type
);

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $mailChimpUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json'));      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

Answer 1

Here is working simple MailChimp PHP API 3.0 Curl example code snippet

<?PHP

// put your api key here  note the ending text past the - this is your datacenter 
// the datacenter needs to be added into to the url in the curlopt_url (see below)
$apikey = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-us11"; // my datacenter was "us11"


// listid goes here - to find this... log into mail chimp go to Lists menu , 
// look to far right of list name for a drop down arrow, select the "Settings" dropdown,
// scroll to bottom and look  for  "Unique id for list"
$list_id = "xxxxxxxxxx"; // web site list


// the data I used to register (there may be others you can use, check API docs)
$email = "<<email_address_to_register>>";
$fname = "<<first_name>>";
$lname = "<<last_name>>";


$auth = base64_encode( 'user:'.$apikey );


// Notice the value of 'status' is 'pending'  
// I found this via a google search indicating a double opt in subscription process 

$data = array(
'apikey'        => $apikey,
'email_address' => $email,
'status'        => 'pending',
'merge_fields'  => array(
'FNAME' => $fname,
'LNAME' => $lname,
)
);
$json_data = json_encode($data);

$ch = curl_init();

// notice datacenter  "us11" comes after the // - make sure you update this to your datacenter (e.g. us2, us7 etc) or you'll get the "wrong datacenter" error.
$curlopt_url = "https://us11.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/lists/$list_id/members/";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $curlopt_url);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json',
    'Authorization: Basic '.$auth));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'PHP-MCAPI/3.0');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json_data);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
/*
// some debug statements 
var_dump($result);
print_r ($result);
*/


// here is simple way to determine status of a subscription
// $result is in JSON format
// this following loop is a simple JSON decode loop I found via google


 $status = "undefined";
    $msg = "unknown error occurred";
$myArray = json_decode($result, true);

foreach($myArray as $key => $value)
{

    // debug key<<< = >>>$value<<< <br>";

    if( $key == "status" )
    {
        $status=$value;
        //debug                 echo" status found $status<Br>";
    }
    else if ($key == "title")
    {
        $msg=$value;
        //debug                 echo" title found $msg<Br>";
    }


}

// create the output that gets displayed or returned if invoked by AJAX method
if( $status == "pending" )
{
    $msg = "Success! <br>$email has been subscribed <Br>check your inbox for the confirmation email to complete your subscription";
}
else
{
    $msg = "Sorry can not subscribe email $email <br>$msg <Br>";
}


echo "$msg <br>";


die(' '); // frees up mem etc..

?>