MailChimp App: Too many api calls causes IP block

[NathanCOM]

When attempting to add the Mailchimp app in Power BI online I receive a message that others have recieved stating "We couldn't import data from MailChimp".

We couldn't import data from MailChimp
There was an error when processing the data in the dataset.
Please try again later or contact support. If you contact support, please provide these details.
Data source errorWeb.Contents failed to get contents from 'https://usXX.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/reports/XXXX/domain-performance/?count=100&offset=0' (503): Service Unavailable. The exception was raised by the IDataReader interface. Table: Domain Performance.
Activity IDb7fade2b-8968-4b6f-a933-8e38c12c8a2a
Correlation ID86c0fcef-b3f2-8ab8-fd1b-c5ed17144309
Request ID2bde8b6c-875c-5bdb-34ac-ba5f304f7887
Status code400
TimeThu Aug 08 2019 10:05:58 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)
Version13.0.10315.197
Cluster URIhttps://wabi-us-gov-iowa-redirect.analysis.usgovcloudapi.net

Based on other issues, I spent time chatting with MailChimp support and we ran a number of tests and determined there wasn't anything wrong with the API. After they escalated the issue and reviewed logs on their end it was determined that the integration makes too many requests in a short amount of time.

This causes the IP to become temporarily blocked until traffic dies down. They've seen this occur shortly after the integration is connected to MailChimp. They have stated that this isn't something they are able to whitelist/delist on their end and have to wait until the IP is no longer blocked.

According to MailChimp, "This should be something that Power BI is aware of as we've worked with them about it before. It's something they just need to space out requests on to avoid these types of blocks."

Even after the initial integration attempt is made we aren't able to get data. The process/behavior is like this:

1. Add the app: Get Apps > Services > MailChimp
2. Connect to MailChimp using OAuth2
3. Log in with MailChimp credentials
4. "Importing data" is attempted
5. "We couldn't import data from MailChimp" message is displayed
6. Dashboards/Reports/Dataset links under My Workspace now have "MailChimp" as links
7. No dataset exists, and the link eventually disapears, the same with the link under Reports
8. Clicking on the MailChimp dashboard now displays empty tiles with lock icons
9. Dashboard eventually only displays a blank white screen

Due to there not being a dataset listed I am unable to attempt to refresh the data after the IP block has been lifted.

Are there any solutions to this issue? Is there anything Power BI developers can do to fix the timing of the API calls?

[v-yuta-msft]

@NathanCOM ,

I would suggest you to create a support ticket here.

Regards,

Jimmy Tao

[ReportGuru]

Hi @NathanCOM Since the Mailchimp service pack was deprecated, you would have to look for another way. As a workaround, maybe you can use a 3rd party connector, it can save you a lot of time compared to other options. I've tried windsor.ai, supermetrics and funnel.io. I stayed with windsor because it is much cheaper so just to let you know other options. In case you wonder, to make the connection first search for the Mailchimp connector in the data sources list:

After that, you will have to first create a secret API key in your Mailchimp account and then using your credentials add your account to the platform.

Once you’ve done this, you can proceed and go to the “Preview and destination” step

There just select the fields you need. Finally, just select PBI as your data destination and finally just copy and paste the url on PBI --> Get Data --> Web --> Paste the url.