Developers

Example Usage of
contact_list

View multiple (a list of) contacts.

Description: View many (or all) contacts by including their ID's or various filters. This is useful for searching for contacts that match certain criteria - such as being part of a certain list, or having a specific custom field value. Contacts that are not subscribed to at least one list will not be viewable via this endpoint.
Endpoint: /admin/api.php?api_action=contact_list
HTTP method: GET
Supported output formats: xml, json, serialize
Requires authentication: true
Parameters:
* indicates requirement. Underlined params include in URL, otherwise as part of the post body. POST data must be formatted as
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
. We don't accept any other input formats like JSON.
Variable Description
api_action*contact_list
api_outputxml, json, or serialize (default is XML)
ids*ID's (comma-separated) of each contact you want to view (set to ALL for all ids) (Not required when using the filter parameter).
filtersSee below code example for all filters you can pass (ID Not required when using filter, when using ID it will limit results based on those IDs).
fullWhether or not to return ALL data, or an abbreviated portion (set to 1 for ALL data, and 0 for abbreviated).
sortField to sort on (possible values: id, datetime, first_name, last_name).
sort_directionDirection of sort (possible values: ASC or DESC).
pagePagination: results are limited to 20 per page, so specify what page to view.
Example response:
Variable Description
0Array
idID of the contact. Example: 2
subscriberidID of the contact. Example: 2
listidID of the list this contact is part of. Example: 1
formidSubscription form ID used when subscribing. Example: 0
sdateDate subscribed. Example: 2011-03-09 09:59:12
udateDate unsubscribed. Example: 2011-03-08 14:24:44
statusStatus for this list. Example: 1
responder1
sync0
unsubreasonUnsubscribe reason.
unsubcampaignidCampaign sent when unsubscribed. Example: 10
unsubmessageidMessage sent when unsubscribed. Example: 1
first_nameFirst name of contact. Example: Name
last_nameLast name of contact. Example: One
cdateDate subscribed. Example: 2011-03-02 14:47:01
emailEmail address of contact. Example: [email protected]
bounced_hardNumber of times this contact has hard-bounced. Example: 0
bounced_softNumber of times this contact has soft-bounced. Example: 0
bounced_dateDate of most recent bounce for this contact.
ipIP address of the contact. Example: 38.104.242.98
hashUnique hash for the contact. Example: dfdsfdsfefr345345wfdrs3r
socialdata_lastcheckLast time social data was fetched for this contact.
lid1
nameFull name of this contact. Example: Name One
a_unsub_date2011-03-08
a_unsub_time14:24:44
listsArray
listslistString of lists for this contact. Example: 1
fieldsArray
bouncesArray
bouncescntNumber of total bounces for this contact. Example: 0
result_codeWhether or not the response was successful. Examples: 1 = yes, 0 = no
result_messageA custom message that appears explaining what happened. Example: Something is returned
result_outputThe result output used. Example: serialize

PHP Example

This is an example of using the contact_list call with PHP. You can replicate the same idea in virtually any other programming language. The example shown is using serialize as the output format. You can change that to XML or JSON if you would like.

<?php

// By default, this sample code is designed to get the result from your ActiveCampaign installation and print out the result
$url = 'https://account.api-us1.com';

// optional custom field search: provide field ID, and search query (this searches all custom field values)
/*
$fields = array(
    1 => 'value', // in this case, 1 is the custom field ID, and 'value' is the value you are searching for
);
*/

// the API Key can be found on the "Your Settings" page under the "API" tab.
// replace this with your API Key
$api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY';

$params = array(

  'api_action' => 'contact_list',

  // define the type of output you wish to get back
  // possible values:
  // - 'xml'  :      you have to write your own XML parser
  // - 'json' :      data is returned in JSON format and can be decoded with
  //                 json_decode() function (included in PHP since 5.2.0)
  // - 'serialize' : data is returned in a serialized format and can be decoded with
  //                 a native unserialize() function
  'api_output' => 'serialize',

  // a comma-separated list of IDs of contacts you wish to fetch
  'ids' => '1,2,3,4,5',

  // filters (optional): supply filters that will narrow down the results
  // if any filters are set, don't pass the 'ids' parameter above

    // Email address: exact match
    //'filters[email]' => '[email protected]',

    // List ID's associated with contact: exact match. Provide multiple values (performs an OR operation) like this: '4,7'
    //'filters[listid]' => '4',

    // First Name: exact match. Provide multiple values (performs an OR operation) like this: 'mike,john'
    //'filters[first_name]' => 'mike',

    // Last Name: exact match. Provide multiple values (performs an OR operation) like this: 'smith,jones'
    //'filters[last_name]' => 'jones',

    // Organization: exact match.
    //'filters[organization]' => 'ABC Inc.',

    // Contact ID: only include contacts with an ID greater than some integer
    //'filters[id_greater]' => '44',

    // Contact ID: only include contacts with an ID less than some integer
    //'filters[id_less]' => '44',

    // Segment ID to return only contacts that match a list segment
    //'filters[segmentid]' => '13',

    // Status of contact: exact match. Provide multiple values (performs an OR operation) like this: '0,1' (0: unconfirmed, 1: active, 2: unsubscribed)
    //'filters[status]' => '1',

    // Filter on contact tag using either the tag id or the tag name. Only one tag filter is allowed. Use a list segment for filtering based on multiple tags.
    //'filters[tagid]' => '21',
    // or
    //'filters[tagname]' => 'my tag',

    // Contacts ON (or AT) a specific date/time (set status param): pattern match - provide any portion of MySQL-formatted date/time string
    //'filters[datetime]' => '2009-10-22',

    // Contacts *since* a specified date in the past (set status param): exact match - provide MySQL-formatted date/time string
    //'filters[since_datetime]' => '2009-10-22 00:00:00',

    // Contacts *until* a specified date (set status param): exact match - provide MySQL-formatted date/time string
    //'filters[until_datetime]' => '2009-10-23 00:00:00',

    // Filter on custom field values (include the custom field ID, or personalization tag surrounded by percent signs)
    //'filters[fields][%PERS_1%]' => 'value1 match',

    // Filter on custom field values (include the custom field ID, or personalization tag surrounded by percent signs)
    //'filters[fields][%PERS_2%]' => 'value2 match',

  // whether or not to return ALL data, or an abbreviated portion (set to 0 for abbreviated)
  'full' => 1,

  // optional: change how results are sorted (default is below)
  //'sort' => 'id', // possible values: id, datetime, first_name, last_name
  //'sort_direction' => 'DESC', // ASC or DESC
  //'page' => 2, // pagination - results are limited to 20 per page, so specify what page to view (default is 1)

);

// This section takes the input fields and converts them to the proper format
$query = "";
foreach( $params as $key => $value ) $query .= urlencode($key) . '=' . urlencode($value) . '&';
$query = rtrim($query, '& ');

// clean up the url
$url = rtrim($url, '/ ');

// This sample code uses the CURL library for php to establish a connection,
// submit your request, and show (print out) the response.
if ( !function_exists('curl_init') ) die('CURL not supported. (introduced in PHP 4.0.2)');

// If JSON is used, check if json_decode is present (PHP 5.2.0+)
if ( $params['api_output'] == 'json' && !function_exists('json_decode') ) {
    die('JSON not supported. (introduced in PHP 5.2.0)');
}

// define a final API request - GET
$api = $url . '/admin/api.php?' . $query;

$request = curl_init($api); // initiate curl object
curl_setopt($request, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('API-TOKEN: ' . $api_key));  //  Provide the API Token via the API-TOKEN header
curl_setopt($request, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0); // set to 0 to eliminate header info from response
curl_setopt($request, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); // Returns response data instead of TRUE(1)
//curl_setopt($request, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE); // uncomment if you get no gateway response and are using HTTPS
curl_setopt($request, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);

$response = (string)curl_exec($request); // execute curl fetch and store results in $response

// additional options may be required depending upon your server configuration
// you can find documentation on curl options at http://www.php.net/curl_setopt
curl_close($request); // close curl object

if ( !$response ) {
    die('Nothing was returned. Do you have a connection to Email Marketing server?');
}

// This line takes the response and breaks it into an array using:
// JSON decoder
//$result = json_decode($response);
// unserializer
$result = unserialize($response);
// XML parser...
// ...

// Result info that is always returned
echo 'Result: ' . ( $result['result_code'] ? 'SUCCESS' : 'FAILED' ) . '<br />';
echo 'Message: ' . $result['result_message'] . '<br />';

// The entire result printed out
echo 'The entire result printed out:<br />';
echo '<pre>';
print_r($result);
echo '</pre>';

// Raw response printed out
echo 'Raw response printed out:<br />';
echo '<pre>';
print_r($response);
echo '</pre>';

// API URL that returned the result
echo 'API URL that returned the result:<br />';
echo $api;?>

Questions? Discuss this API call in our developer forum