Direct Add

Direct Add allows you to add contacts to your account via pages on your website.

This is accomplished by adding a special img tag to a page on your site. The img tag contains a URL (The Direct Add URL), and user-defined parameters containing data you want to pass back to your account. The data passed back consists of the following:

A contact (referenced by email address).
Any field data you want to associate with the contact.
Any lists you want to add the contact to.
A mobile number and any SMS keyword you want to add the contact to.
A comment for the source of your contact.

Parameters are added to the Direct Add URL in the following format:


&email=example@example.com&field1=fieldname,operation,value&list2=listid&comment=source

Warning: If you are using a private domain and also use https, you need to set the start of your src value to be https://app.bronto.com:

Change the URL in the Direct Add img tag src attribute to use https.
Change the domain in the Direct Add img tag src attribute to app.bronto.com.

Warning: When using Direct Add, please be mindful of character limits for URLs. We advise URLs to be less than 2,000 characters.

Unlike Direct Update, Direct Add does not require that a contact access a page on your site using an img tag via a sent message. The difference is contact identification. Direct Add is used to create new contacts in your account. Direct Update is used to perform actions pertaining to existing contacts. In the case of Direct Update, contacts are identified by a cookie this is set when a message is sent to them from the application. When they click on a link in the message and go to a page on your site containing the Direct Update img tag, the cookie is used to identify which contact to update or unsubscribe. This is the reason why pages on your site containing the Direct Update img tags can only be accessed via messages sent from the application.

A contact on the suppression list cannot be added to your account until the email address is removed from the suppression list. If a contact who is on the suppression list attempts to sign-up to receive email messages from you via an Add Contacts webform or via Direct Add, they will not be added as a contact in your account.

For more information on using the suppression list, see Suppression Lists.

Example Direct Add Implementation

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>New Contact Form</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container">

    <div class="container">
      <div class="row">
        <div class="span12">
          <h1 class="text-center">Email Sign Up</h1><br />
    <form class="form-horizontal" onsubmit="directAdd()">
      <div class="form-group">
        <label for="first_name" class="control-label col-xs-4">First Name</label>
        <div class="col-xs-8">
          <div class="input-group">
            <div class="input-group-addon">
              <i class="fa fa-address-card"></i>
            </div>
            <input id="firstname" name="first_name" type="text" class="form-control">
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="form-group">
        <label for="last_name" class="control-label col-xs-4">Last Name</label>
        <div class="col-xs-8">
          <div class="input-group">
            <div class="input-group-addon">
              <i class="fa fa-address-card"></i>
            </div>
            <input id="lastname" name="last_name" type="text" class="form-control">
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="form-group">
        <label for="email" class="control-label col-xs-4">Email</label>
        <div class="col-xs-8">
          <div class="input-group">
            <div class="input-group-addon">
              <i class="fa fa-address-card"></i>
            </div>
            <input id="email" name="email" type="text" class="form-control" required="required">
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="form-group">
        <label for="checkbox" class="control-label col-xs-4"></label>
        <div class="col-xs-8">
          <label class="checkbox-inline">
            <input type="checkbox" name="checkbox" value="1" id="msgpref">
                  I want to hear about special offers and promotions. See our <a href="#">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="#">Terms of Service</a>.  
          </label>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="form-group row">
        <div class="col-xs-offset-4 col-xs-8">
          <button name="submit" type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Sign Up</button>
        </div>
      </div>
    </form>
  </body>
  <script type="text/javascript">
  function directAdd() {
    var firstname = document.getElementById('firstname').value;
    var lastname = document.getElementById('lastname').value;
    var email = document.getElementById('email').value;
    var email = encodeURIComponent(email);
    var msgpref = document.getElementById('msgpref').value;
    document.writeln('<img src="http://public_domain/public/?q=direct_add&fn=Public_DirectAddForm&id=UNIQUEID&email='+email+'&field1=firstname,set,'+firstname+'&field2=lastname,set,'+lastname+'&field3=msgpref,set,'+msgpref+'&list4=33333ec000000000000000000000003f3&comment=WebSignUp" width="0" height="0" border="0"/>');
}
   </script>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</html>