ActsAsChimp
===========

Simple hook to add or remove a user to/from a MailChimp mailing list.

== Installation

You should have a user table, MailChimp account and mailing list setup that expects email, first_name and last_name.  
Installation will copy a mail_chimp.yml configuration file to your config directory.  Add your MailChimp login 
information to this file so we can use the APIs.

== Usage

This plugin is fairly stripped down at the moment and is directed at a fairly specific use case (aka: Sign up for our 
beta sorta deal).  We're using restful_authentication for our use case and more or less are assuming you're doing the 
same (or have a similar setup with a user table - we're not dependent on that plugin, but its a damn good one if you're 
not using it).  

We add user first name, last name and email address to our MailChimp mailing list, and we've likewise assumed you'll 
want to do the same.  As such, we've provided a script to create a migration to add user first and last names to your 
users table if they're not already there.  The sign-up forms are up to you and any additional fields are up to you.  


After running the migrations, you can just add your credentials to the mail_chimp.yml file and then add the following to 
your user model (NOTE: mail merge variables are dependent upon what you have setup in your MailChimp mailing list):

acts_as_chimp :mailing_list_id => 'your_list_id', :mail_merge => {
       "FNAME" => :first_name, "LNAME" => :last_name }
      

You can get your list id by using the ChimpHelper class.  The mail merge arguments correspond to the arguments you setup 
when you created your MailChimp list.       

and we'll take care of adding the user to the mail chimp list you specify with an after save callback. 

If you need to figure out your mail chimp mail list id, we've provided some helper methods for you in the ChimpHelper 
class. 


=== Prepare database

Generate and apply the migration if you need to:

  script/generate acts_as_chimp_migration
  rake db:migrate

Example
=======

Interacting with the ChimpHelper to get your mailing list id:

Instantiate new helper:
c = ChimpHelper.new

Login to get authorized:
authorization_info = c.login('user', 'login')

Pass authorization info and mailing list name to method:
list = c.mailing_list_info(authorization_info,"Test")


In order to add a user to a mailing list.  Add the following to your User model:
acts_as_chimp :mailing_list_id => 'your_list_id'

Your User model should have an email, first_name and last_name.  

A user will be removed from a mailing list post_destroy as well.  


Copyright (c) 2008 MandarinSoda, released under the MIT license