Step by Step Guide to Building a Mautic API Integration in C#

Introduction

Hey there, fellow developer! Ready to dive into the world of Mautic API integration? You're in the right place. Mautic, the open-source marketing automation platform, offers a robust API that we'll be tapping into with C#. By the end of this guide, you'll have a solid integration up and running. Let's get cracking!

Prerequisites

Before we jump in, make sure you've got:

• Visual Studio or your favorite C# IDE
• .NET Core SDK
• Mautic API credentials (you've got these, right?)

Setting up the project

First things first, let's get our project set up:

1. Fire up Visual Studio and create a new C# Console Application.
2. Install the following NuGet packages:

   Install-Package RestSharp
   Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json
   

Authentication

Mautic uses OAuth 2.0, so let's tackle that:

using RestSharp;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

var client = new RestClient("https://your-mautic-instance.com");
var request = new RestRequest("oauth/v2/token", Method.POST);
request.AddParameter("client_id", "your_client_id");
request.AddParameter("client_secret", "your_client_secret");
request.AddParameter("grant_type", "client_credentials");

var response = await client.ExecuteAsync(request);
var token = JObject.Parse(response.Content)["access_token"].ToString();

Pro tip: Store that token securely and reuse it until it expires!

Basic API requests

Now that we're authenticated, let's make a simple GET request:

var request = new RestRequest("api/contacts", Method.GET);
request.AddHeader("Authorization", $"Bearer {token}");
var response = await client.ExecuteAsync(request);

CRUD operations

Let's create a new contact:

var request = new RestRequest("api/contacts/new", Method.POST);
request.AddHeader("Authorization", $"Bearer {token}");
request.AddJsonBody(new
{
    firstname = "John",
    lastname = "Doe",
    email = "[email protected]"
});
var response = await client.ExecuteAsync(request);

Retrieving, updating, and deleting follow a similar pattern. Just change the endpoint and method as needed.

Working with campaigns

Fetch campaign data:

var request = new RestRequest("api/campaigns", Method.GET);
request.AddHeader("Authorization", $"Bearer {token}");
var response = await client.ExecuteAsync(request);

Add a contact to a campaign:

var request = new RestRequest($"api/campaigns/{campaignId}/contact/{contactId}/add", Method.POST);
request.AddHeader("Authorization", $"Bearer {token}");
var response = await client.ExecuteAsync(request);

Error handling and logging

Always wrap your API calls in try-catch blocks:

try
{
    var response = await client.ExecuteAsync(request);
    // Log success
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Log error
    Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
}

Best practices

• Respect rate limits: Mautic has them, so don't go wild with requests.
• Cache responses when possible to reduce API calls.
• Use async/await for all API calls to keep your app responsive.

Testing the integration

Unit test your methods and use Mautic's sandbox environment for integration testing. Trust me, your future self will thank you!

Conclusion

And there you have it! You've just built a Mautic API integration in C#. Pretty cool, right? Remember, this is just the beginning. There's a whole world of Mautic API endpoints to explore. So go forth and automate those marketing tasks like a boss!

For more details, check out the Mautic API documentation. Happy coding!