Recommended API methods to be used for different tasks
The following table includes the recommended API methods to be used to perform certain tasks. A method in the HTTP Get/Post API and/or a method in the SOAP Web Services API may be available.
Action | Comments | Get/Post API | SOAP Web Services |
Confirm successful communication with the API | This refers to confirming that the API credentials entered by the user are correct. The method used should return useful errors so that the user is informed of what might be going wrong. | ||
Retrieve Lists | This refers to storing the information needed to then enable/disable Lists to be shown to users of the application so that they may subscribe/unsubscribe to/from different Lists | N/A | |
| Retrieve Groups | This refers to storing the information needed to pass a Group ID when sending data back to MailUp (e.g. to assign subscribers to a certain group) | N/A | MailUpImport.GetNlLists |
Retrieve Fields | This refers to storing field ID and field name to allow for mapping between fields in the MailUp account and those in the integrated application. | N/A | |
Single Subscribe | Subscribing a single customer to one or more lists (e.g. during checkout or registration) | ||
Single Unsubscribe | Unsubscribing a single customer from one or more lists (e.g. customer updates their account in the storefront) | ||
Single Update | Updating a single customer based on mapped data fields (e.g. first name, last name, etc | ||
Bulk Subscribe | Subscribing N customers to one or more lists (e.g. customer preferences are saved locally when customers register/checkout) | N/A | |
Bunk Unsubscribe | Unsubscribing N customers from one or more lists (e.g. customer preferences are saved locally when customers register/checkout) | N/A | |
Bulk Update | Updating N customers based on mapped data fields (e.g. first name, last name, etc. and all the ecommerce data fields) | N/A | |
Retrieve subscription status for a specific customer and list | This refers to determining whether a certain customer is subscribed to a given list or not, so that the correct subscription preference can be shown in the ecommerce system (or to update locally stored subscription preferences). |
Performance Concerns
There is a point where a data transfer via the MailUp API may lead to performance concerns. In those cases, data transfer via Batch FTP may be preferable. The choice between the two options depends on the size of the data synchronization task and the frequency of the task.
Here we are including some general guidelines. Please note that actual results are dependent on many variables including Internet connection speed, server processing speed, etc.
- Importing around 10,000 contacts into MailUp via MailUpImport requires around 6 minutes
- Adding data fields to the import (e.g. first name, last name, company, age group, etc.) typically does not significantly affect the total import time
- Adding the mobile phone number as a second channel (not simply as a data field) does affect the total import time by a factor of 10.
Based on the above, we recommend that a data import/update with the MailUpImport Web Service follows these guidelines:
- Import up to 20,000 contacts at one time
- Only import one channel at a time (i.e. email or SMS, not both at the same time)
- Import up to 4 data fields at the same time, for optimal performance