Does MailChimp have a sandbox API with dummy data in it for testing?

Question

I'd like to start using the MailChimp API to create a utility that simply pulls some metrics from a user's account, such as subscribers, last campaign date (not sure if that one is available yet), open rate, etc.

One critical issue I'm facing is that, while I have a free MailChimp account, there is no data in it whatsoever (no lists, subscribers, campaigns, etc.), which makes it less than ideal for testing.

So I'd like to know what my best option is here, i.e.:

• Should I create some dummy data manually (like add myself as a subscriber to a list and then send myself some emails?),
• or do they (MailChimp) provide a "sandbox" account that already has some richer test/dummy data in it? Or,
• some other alternative...

PS - I'm using MuleSoft for this integration task (I mention it because perhaps this info will help with the answer).

Solution 1

MailChimp doesn't currently provide a 'sandbox' account for API testing. I think your best bet would be to subscribe yourself and play around. I've found MailChimp's API to be super easy to use and mighty well documented, so I imagine you won't have too much trouble figuring it out without a sandbox to play in.

BTW: Last campaign date is easily pulled from campaigns/list output: default order is DESC by create_time, so if not specified, first item returned is last campaign sent, and send_time is returned within the data array.

Solution 2

Indeed Mailchimp has no Sandbox, but there is something they call an API Playground, which basicly let's you navigate the API interactively, seeing live results of GET calls on your data, and understanding the different resources and options.

For example, clicking lists will call /lists which displays your lists both as json response and as parsed clickable items. You can easily click through into a certain list's members for instance. You can then POST to members to create a member. The playground will leave you to figure out the POST body, but it's not too hard since it's RESTful and you have the GET response.

Note again that this is not a sandbox and calls will effect your account/data.

Comments

[TooMuchPete]

The documentation on the new version of the API is lacking, but it's actually RESTful, so that makes it a bit easier to navigate. This is right, though, that there is no sandbox.

[Drewdavid]

Thanks both for your contributions!

[mrded]

You will be only getting errors like following: [email protected] has signed up to a lot of lists very recently; we're not allowing more signups for now.

[evolross]

It's kind of annoying Mailchimp has no test data or test account similar to how Stripe does. One may want to test their API calls without having to use a production mailing list with a production key in the development code.

[yogibear]

The API Playground doesn't appear to be available on that link. I also tried the server cluster for the cluster my account is on. In fact there is a message saying they shut it down (mailchimp.com/developer/release-notes/…) Nov 9th 2020