Sitecore 8 EXM add a contact to list from listmanager

Question

I\'m using Sitecore 8 and the new Email Experience Manager module. I have configured a newsletter email message with an empty list from the listmanager as recipients.

Answer 1

I have had the exact same issue, i.e. the list manager reports 0 contacts after adding the contact to the recipient list.

I have investigated the issue closer and found that adding a contact to a recipient list actually just sets a field on the contact in the "sitecore_analytics_index" index (assuming you use Mongo/XDB as the underlying storage). Specifically, Sitecore should update the "contact.tags" field on the contact document with the value "ContactLists:{recipientListGuid}". I tried opening the index with Luke to verify that this field was indeed not being set in the index. The index is located in C:\inetpub\wwwroot[Sitename]\Data\indexes\sitecore_analytics_index.

This led me to the conclusion, that you have to save the contact after adding him to the recipient list.

Summing up, the following code works for me:

var ecm = EcmFactory.GetDefaultFactory();
XdbContactId contactId = /* some valid contact id */;
LeaseOwner leaseOwner = new LeaseOwner("UpdateContact-" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), LeaseOwnerType.OutOfRequestWorker);
Sitecore.Analytics.Tracking.Contact contact;
string webClusterName;
var status = ecm.Gateways.AnalyticsGateway.TryGetContactForUpdate(contactId.Value,
    leaseOwner,
    TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5),
     TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5),
     out contact, out webClusterName);

var recipientList = ecm.Bl.RecipientCollectionRepository.GetEditableRecipientCollection(recipientListId);
  if (recipientList != null)
  {
    if (!recipientList.Contains(contactId, true).Value)
    {
      recipientList.AddRecipient(contactId);
    }
  }

contact.ContactSaveMode = ContactSaveMode.AlwaysSave;
var contactRepository = new ContactRepository();
var success = contactRepository.SaveContact(contact, new ContactSaveOptions(true, leaseOwner));

Note, the above code is used in an update-scenario. In your case, I guess you just have to move this code:

contactRepository.SaveContact(contact, new ContactSaveOptions(true, null));

After this:

var recipientList = EcmFactory.GetDefaultFactory().Bl.RecipientCollectionRepository.GetEditableRecipientCollection(recipientListId);
  if (recipientList != null)
  {
    var xdbContact = new XdbContactId(contactId);
    if (!recipientList.Contains(xdbContact, true).Value)
    {
      recipientList.AddRecipient(xdbContact);
    }
  }

UPDATE: Actually the above only works if the contact saved is the contact currently tracked by Sitecore Analytics.