Developers

Example Usage of
contact_view_email

View a single contact by looking up their email address.

Description: View only one contact's details by searching for their email address.
Endpoint: /admin/api.php?api_action=contact_view_email
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_view_email
api_outputxml, json, or serialize (default is XML)
email*Email address of the contact you are looking up. Example: '[email protected]'
Example response:
Variable Description
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
customer_acct_idID of the contact's organization. Example: 1
customer_acct_nameName of the contact's organization. Example: ACME, Inc.
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.
campaign_historyArray
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
actionsArray
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_view_email 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';

// 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(

	// this is the action that fetches a contact info based on the ID you provide
	'api_action'   => 'contact_view_email',
	//'api_action' => 'contact_view', // this one also works

	// 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',

	'email'        => '[email protected]',
);

// 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