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