List Manager: Creating a Contact List from an external source programmatically

Version

Sitecore 8 Update 2 (150223)

    EXM 3 rev 150223

Task

Create a list manager contact list programmatically from an external data source which can be used as a recipient list for an EXM email message.

Details

First we'll create a recipient list.

The using statements needed:

[sourcecode language="text"]using Sitecore.Analytics.Data;using Sitecore.Analytics.DataAccess;using Sitecore.Analytics.Model;using Sitecore.Analytics.Model.Entities;using Sitecore.Analytics.Tracking;using Sitecore.Configuration;using Sitecore.Data;using Sitecore.ListManagement.ContentSearch;using Sitecore.ListManagement.ContentSearch.Model;using ContactData = Sitecore.ListManagement.ContentSearch.Model.ContactData;[/sourcecode]

Create the list and associate contacts with the list

[sourcecode language="text"]var listManager = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject("contactListManager", false) as ContactListManager;var list = new ContactList(ListName);try { //Create list if necessary listManager.Create(list); var listId = list.Id; //is assigned after creation. listManager.AssociateContacts(list, GetContactDatas());}...[/sourcecode]

Get the contacts for the list

[sourcecode language="text"]protected List<ContactData> GetContactDatas(){ List<ContactData> returnList = new List<ContactData>(); // ... Read the external datasource into Identifier, FirstName,LastName,EmailAddress ... // ... Loop through each contact read // Add or update the contact ContactData contact = CreateContact(Identifier, FirstName,LastName,EmailAddress); if (contact != null) returnList.Add(contact); return returnList;}[/sourcecode]

Create or update the contact to associate with the list

[sourcecode language="text"]// Add contact if the Identifier is not found, otherwise, update the existing contactprotected ContactData CreateContact(string identifier, string firstName, string lastName, string emailAddress){ if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(identifier)) return null; var contactRepo = Factory.CreateObject("contactRepository", true) as ContactRepository; LeaseOwner leaseOwner = new LeaseOwner(identifier, LeaseOwnerType.OutOfRequestWorker); Contact newContact = null; LockAttemptResult<Contact> result = contactRepo.TryLoadContact(identifier, leaseOwner, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1.0)); switch (result.Status) { case LockAttemptStatus.Success: // Existing Contact newContact = result.Object as Contact; // Email Facet var emailFacet = newContact.GetFacet&lt;IContactEmailAddresses&gt;(_facetEmails); //_facetEmails = "Emails"; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(emailFacet.Preferred)) { IEmailAddress address = emailFacet.Entries[emailFacet.Preferred]; address.SmtpAddress = emailAddress; } emailFacet.Preferred = _facetEmailPreferred; //_facetEmailPreferred = "Preferred"; break; case LockAttemptStatus.NotFound: // New Contact ID guid = Sitecore.Data.ID.NewID; newContact = contactRepo.CreateContact(guid); newContact.Identifiers.Identifier = identifier; // Email Facet var emailFacetNew = newContact.GetFacet&lt;IContactEmailAddresses&gt;(_facetEmails); //_facetEmails = "Emails"; emailFacetNew.Entries.Create(_facetEmailPreferred).SmtpAddress = emailAddress; emailFacetNew.Preferred = _facetEmailPreferred; break; default: throw new NotImplementedException("Handling of collection database locking failures is not yet implemented."); } if (newContact != null) { // Create and Update same once we have the contact var personalInfoNew = newContact.GetFacet&lt;IContactPersonalInfo&gt;("Personal"); personalInfoNew.FirstName = firstName; personalInfoNew.Surname = lastName; } newContact.ContactSaveMode = ContactSaveMode.AlwaysSave; try { contactRepo.SaveContact(newContact,new ContactSaveOptions(true, leaseOwner)); } catch (Exception ExContactNotSaved) { //if (ExContactNotSaved Error is exists and not testing for existence) string message = ExContactNotSaved.Message.ToString(); } return new ContactData() { Identifier = identifier };}</pre><pre>[/sourcecode]

Here's an example of an imported contact in Mongo Db with the Contact List associated as a Tag:

The list in Sitecore List Manager: