Getting Started with Pardot API in NetSuite

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Who is using Pardot for Email Marketing Automation? I don't directly work with Marketing Department to know ins and outs of Pardot but I do know it's pretty awesome email marketing automation tool. I've seen my Marketing department create very effective unmanned drip marketing campaign through Pardot's automation workflow. Like every online software though, it's not perfect. However for what it's used for, I think it's pretty great software.

They have API available so that other cloud based or home grown software can connect and integrate.

As a developer, what does Pardot API mean? It means more work ;) No, no, it actually means you can take your website to new level of integration. Automated drip campaign based on activity your website visitors are doing? Access prospects information such as past activities, scores and display different sales related result pages? Well, I'm sure your marketing department can come up with pretty fancy way of using it.

Let's start with the basics. Pardot's API is URL based. I found it pretty easy to use when integrating NetSuite and Pardot together. You can check out Pardots' API documentation.

I wrote about NetSuite - Pardot Integration before

Step 1: You need to be able to get Authenticated into Pardot.
Pardot API on Authentcation
Pardot URL: https://pi.pardot.com/api/login/version/3
Required Parameters: Email Address, Password, User Key
Request sent to Pardot using GET or POST method will return API Key if login was successful.
In NetSuite, you can use nlapiRequestURL() method to make a server call out to external webservices.

var loginUrl='https://pi.pardot.com/api/login/version/3?email=[pardotEmail]&password=[pardotPass]&user_key=[pardotKey]';
var authorizeResponse = nlapiRequestURL(loginUrl,null,null);
var xml=nlapiStringToXML(authorizeResponse.getBody());

Javascript variable xml will contain result xml from Pardot. If successful, it will contain API Key. If unsuccessful, it will contain error code.

Step 2: Use the API Key to perform actions against Pardot.
Once you have the API Key, you can perform actions against Pardot. User Key and API Key are fundamentally required parameters. Most of my actions were against Pardot prospects so below are my most widely used API URLs:

• Prospect Search:
  https://pi.pardot.com/api/prospect/version/3/do/read/output/full&user_key=[x]&api_key=[x]...
  
• Prospect Add:
  https://pi.pardot.com/api/prospect/version/3/do/create/output/full&user_key=[x]&api_key=[x]...
  
• Prospect Update:
  https://pi.pardot.com/api/prospect/version/3/do/update/output/full&user_key=[x]&api_key=[x]...

You can get pretty creative once you know the basics of how to use Pardot API. As I mentioned before, if your company is using NetSuite along with Pardot, it'll be extremely useful to create Pardot related library script.

As I mentioned before, you can use Xpath to gain access to response XML from Pardot. With Pardot API, you can;

• Create or Update Prospects
• Search for existing Prospects
• Add/Remove Prospects from Marketing Segmentations
• Add/Remove Prospects from Marketing Campaigns
• Access native and/or custom Pardot fields

I have one last thought. Both NetSuite and Pardot used together can be very powerful tool for your organization. If you lack in technical resources or you need to get something off the ground fast, do consider using external resources. One company in particular who's been great help is Audaxium. They specialize in MS Dynamics, Pardot and NetSuite integration. Understanding the integration points between the two system and know what it can and can not do is critical to your business.