Todd's Thoughts

Authenticate Users and perform actions with InfusionSoft via a link

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:06:10 +0000

Using the InfusionSoft API to perform actions on contacts is a powerful and effective way to manage your prospect and customer database using Infusionsoft. Some caution is required however, to prevent actions from being executed by those curious people who like to alter the links you send via email.

Here is what I am talking about. Let's say you send an email to your prospects via your Infusionsoft account and you pass the contactId of the prospect in a link to a script on your site, like this: http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/script.php?id=12345

If you execute an API call to add a tag, run an actionset or start a follow up sequence, just by clicking the link with the id string, you open the door for the curious and bored to mess with your prospect list. It is too easy to change the id value to another number and refresh the browser resulting in actions to another prospects record.

Ok, this may not be a big concern for you and you may be saying 'no big deal'. Let me show a few examples of why it is a big deal.

Let's say you link executes an API call to start a new follow up sequence. If one person refreshes their browser 100 times with different id values, you now potentially have 100 people getting emails they know nothing about and some might say you are spamming them.

Another more troublesome possibility is, if the link executes an action set that performs many actions, like charging their credit card of file for a new product.

I say, do not give your list members the ability to mess with your data at all.

Below is a script I use in many places. It authenticates a contact to prevent abuse. It uses the SDK system to connect to the infusionsoft API and can be found in FuseBox inside Infusionsoft -search for SDK.

Please leave comments and let me know what you think.

Thanks.

Todd Thompson

Copy/paste this code to a notepad documents and save as authenticate_user.php - or whatever name you wish to give it.
Get the PHP code here!

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Infusionsoft API Issues

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:32:01 +0000

Over the past 3 weeks I have studied, pulled apart and mastered the infusionsoft API.

It is a tangled, complex API with very little documentation. I guess they want to make their API only accessible to people smart enough to figure it out on their own.

Watch for future posts on how to use the Infusionsoft system to skyrocket sales and manage the customer experience.

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Faber vs Brown 2

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:24:40 +0000

The Faber vs Brown fight on the WEC last sunday was amazing. Imagine breaking your hand in round 1 and then fighting 4 more rounds without the ability to punch or grasp with you dominant hand.

The fact that Faber went the distance is astounding. Brown would have KO'd anyone else with that handicap. Just proves why the Faber legacy in MMA will stand the test of time, regardless of whether he lost a few fights or not.

What are your thoughts on the fight? Comment below.

Thanks..

Todd Thompson

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What Makes A Site Successful?

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:02:52 +0000

There are many facets to a great site, but without question the single most important aspect is automation.

If each visitor action requires a reaction by a human, that's you, you can easily spend your day doing simple tasks that can easily be automated.

Automation includes, but limited to, email followup, answer visitor questions, process and ship orders, deliver audio and video content requested … and much more.

If your site does not have automated programming, it will fail!