Step by Step Guide to Building a Sendy API Integration in Python

Introduction

Hey there, fellow developer! Ready to supercharge your email marketing game with Sendy? In this guide, we'll walk through building a Python integration for the Sendy API. It's easier than you might think, and by the end, you'll be automating your email campaigns like a pro.

Prerequisites

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

• A Python environment (3.6+ recommended)
• The requests library installed (pip install requests)
• Your Sendy API credentials handy

Setting up the project

Let's kick things off by creating a new Python file. Call it sendy_api.py or whatever tickles your fancy. At the top, we'll import our necessary modules:

import requests
import json
import argparse

Configuring the API connection

Now, let's set up our connection to the Sendy API:

API_URL = "https://your-sendy-installation.com/api"
API_KEY = "your_api_key_here"

def send_request(endpoint, data):
    data['api_key'] = API_KEY
    response = requests.post(f"{API_URL}/{endpoint}", data=data)
    return response.json()

Implementing core Sendy API functions

Time to get our hands dirty with some core functions:

def subscribe_user(email, list_id):
    data = {
        'email': email,
        'list': list_id,
        'boolean': 'true'
    }
    return send_request('subscribe', data)

def unsubscribe_user(email, list_id):
    data = {
        'email': email,
        'list': list_id
    }
    return send_request('unsubscribe', data)

def create_campaign(subject, from_name, from_email, reply_to, html_text, list_ids):
    data = {
        'subject': subject,
        'from_name': from_name,
        'from_email': from_email,
        'reply_to': reply_to,
        'html_text': html_text,
        'list_ids': list_ids
    }
    return send_request('create-campaign', data)

def send_campaign(campaign_id):
    data = {
        'campaign_id': campaign_id
    }
    return send_request('send-campaign', data)

Error handling and response parsing

Let's add some basic error handling to our send_request function:

def send_request(endpoint, data):
    data['api_key'] = API_KEY
    try:
        response = requests.post(f"{API_URL}/{endpoint}", data=data)
        response.raise_for_status()
        return response.json()
    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
        print(f"An error occurred: {e}")
        return None

Creating a simple CLI interface

Now, let's wrap it all up with a simple command-line interface:

def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Sendy API Integration")
    parser.add_argument('action', choices=['subscribe', 'unsubscribe', 'create', 'send'])
    parser.add_argument('--email', help="User's email address")
    parser.add_argument('--list', help="List ID")
    parser.add_argument('--subject', help="Campaign subject")
    parser.add_argument('--campaign', help="Campaign ID")
    args = parser.parse_args()

    if args.action == 'subscribe':
        result = subscribe_user(args.email, args.list)
    elif args.action == 'unsubscribe':
        result = unsubscribe_user(args.email, args.list)
    elif args.action == 'create':
        # You'd need to add more arguments for create_campaign
        result = create_campaign(args.subject, 'From Name', '[email protected]', '[email protected]', '<h1>Hello</h1>', args.list)
    elif args.action == 'send':
        result = send_campaign(args.campaign)

    print(json.dumps(result, indent=2))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Testing the integration

Time to put our code to the test! Try running:

python sendy_api.py subscribe --email [email protected] --list your_list_id

Check your Sendy dashboard to verify the results. Cool, right?

Best practices and optimization

A couple of quick tips:

1. Be mindful of rate limits. Sendy might restrict how many requests you can make in a given timeframe.
2. Keep your API key secure. Never commit it to version control!

Conclusion

And there you have it! You've just built a Sendy API integration in Python. From here, you could extend this to integrate with your web app, automate based on user actions, or even build a full-fledged email marketing dashboard.

Remember, the key to mastering APIs is practice and experimentation. So go forth and send those emails! Happy coding!