Can I create full emails with the API?

[user61100]

Hi,

I want to automate the creation of our newsletters as much as possible. Right now it's very manual and time-consuming.

Our emails contain many sections, with different headers, and tables at the end. Typically, we take the previous edition of the email, make updates manually, then send it out.

What I want to do is write the content in an external tool, most likely using Markdown, and automate the creation of the draft version of the email. 

My questions are:

• Does the API support this? I think it does if I understand the documentation correctly.
• Assuming my understanding is that it can:
  • When I create an email, do I need to create the entire HTML portion directly? Or can it be done in multiple blocks/segments?
  • What's the best way to start off with content that will look like what we currently have? i.e. is it possible to creeate an initial version of the HTML by ways other than cut'n'paste followed by trial an derror?
  • If I realize that there needs to be a modification in the email that was created, can I use my automated process to overwrite/modify the initial one that was created? Or should I delete the first one and create a new one from scratch?
  • Can I create a separate testing account to do the test portion so I don't "pollute" the production account with tests that will fail?

BTW, I'm planning on using Make to do this.

Thank you,

L

[Courtney_E · Accepted solution]

Hello user61100,

Thank you for reaching out to Constant Contact API Developer Support. My team is here to assist outside software developers with questions about building into Constant Contact's API.

You can use the V3 API to create, modify, and even send HTML (custom code) emails through your Constant Contact account. When creating Custom Code emails, you will need to provide the full HTML of the email, as well as other campaign details. 

[Designing HTML for Custom Code Emails]

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/design_code_emails.html

[Create an Email Campaign]

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/email_campaign_create.html

[Update an Email Campaign Activity]

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/email_campaign_activity_update.html

Additionally, you can utilize our API Reference Page to find body schemas & values, as well as test the functionality of our available endpoints to see how they will work once programmed within your application:

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_reference/index.html

For example, if you navigate to the link below and then click "BODY SAMPLE" in the upper right of that section, it will expand to show a full example of what the request body might look like when creating an email via the API:

POST (Create) a New Email Campaign

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_reference/index.html#!/Email_Campaigns/createEmailCampa...

We don't have dedicated developer/sandbox accounts per se, but you are able to create a free developer trial account with limited sending capabilities which you can use for your testing purposes. Trial accounts created through the developer portal do not expire, whereas standard trial accounts created through the main site expire after 60 days if not converted to a paid account. Below is a link to our developer portal where you can sign up for a trial account, you'll just need to click on "Get Started" and then "Sign up". 

Constant Contact Developer Portal

https://developer.constantcontact.com/ 

Please have a look and let us know if you have any other questions!

You can also reach our team directly/securely via email at webservices@constantcontact.com