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

Aug 9, 2024 • 5 minute read

Introduction

Hey there, fellow developer! Ready to supercharge your email marketing game with Sendinblue? You're in the right place. We're going to walk through building a rock-solid Sendinblue API integration in C#. Buckle up!

Prerequisites

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

A Sendinblue account with an API key (if you don't have one, go grab it!)
Your favorite C# development environment
NuGet package manager (trust me, it'll make our lives easier)

Setting up the project

Let's get our hands dirty:

Fire up your C# IDE and create a new project.
Open up that NuGet package manager and install the Sendinblue API client:

Install-Package sib_api_v3_sdk

Initializing the Sendinblue client

Time to get that API client up and running:

using sib_api_v3_sdk.Api;
using sib_api_v3_sdk.Client;

Configuration.Default.ApiKey.Add("api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE");
var apiInstance = new TransactionalEmailsApi();

Implementing core functionalities

Sending transactional emails

Let's send our first email:

var sendSmtpEmail = new SendSmtpEmail(
    to: new List<SendSmtpEmailTo> { new SendSmtpEmailTo("[email protected]") },
    subject: "Hello from Sendinblue!",
    htmlContent: "<html><body><h1>This is my first transactional email</h1></body></html>"
);

try
{
    CreateSmtpEmail result = apiInstance.SendTransacEmail(sendSmtpEmail);
    Console.WriteLine("Email sent successfully. MessageId: " + result.MessageId);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Exception when calling TransactionalEmailsApi.SendTransacEmail: " + e.Message);
}

Managing contact lists

Adding a contact is a breeze:

var contactsApi = new ContactsApi();
var createContact = new CreateContact(
    email: "[email protected]",
    attributes: new Dictionary<string, object> { { "FIRSTNAME", "John" }, { "LASTNAME", "Doe" } },
    listIds: new List<long?> { 2, 4 }
);

try
{
    CreateUpdateContactModel result = contactsApi.CreateContact(createContact);
    Console.WriteLine("Contact created successfully. Id: " + result.Id);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Exception when calling ContactsApi.CreateContact: " + e.Message);
}

Error handling and best practices

Always wrap your API calls in try-catch blocks. Sendinblue might throw some curveballs, so be ready:

try
{
    // Your API call here
}
catch (ApiException e)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Error calling Sendinblue API:");
    Console.WriteLine("Status Code: " + e.ErrorCode);
    Console.WriteLine("Error Message: " + e.Message);
}

And hey, watch out for those rate limits! Sendinblue's pretty generous, but don't go wild with the API calls.

Testing the integration

Unit testing is your friend. Here's a quick example using NUnit:

[Test]
public void TestSendEmail()
{
    var apiInstance = new TransactionalEmailsApi();
    var sendSmtpEmail = new SendSmtpEmail(
        to: new List<SendSmtpEmailTo> { new SendSmtpEmailTo("[email protected]") },
        subject: "Test Email",
        htmlContent: "<html><body><h1>This is a test email</h1></body></html>"
    );

    var result = apiInstance.SendTransacEmail(sendSmtpEmail);
    Assert.IsNotNull(result.MessageId);
}

Conclusion

And there you have it! You've just built a solid Sendinblue API integration in C#. Pretty cool, right? Remember, this is just scratching the surface. Sendinblue's got a ton of other features you can play with, like SMS campaigns and automation workflows.

Keep experimenting, keep coding, and most importantly, keep having fun! If you get stuck, Sendinblue's docs are your best friend. Now go forth and conquer those email campaigns!

Happy coding! 🚀