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Data Source

Follow the instructions below to create a new data flow that ingests data from a Mailboxlayer API source in Nexla.
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Mailboxlayer API

Create a New Data Flow​

  1. To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Then, select the desired flow type from the list, and click the Create button.

  2. Select the Mailboxlayer API connector tile from the list of available connectors. Then, select the credential that will be used to connect to your Mailboxlayer account, and click Next; or, create a new Mailboxlayer API credential for use in this flow.

  3. In Nexla, Mailboxlayer API data sources can be created using pre-built endpoint templates, which expedite source setup for common Mailboxlayer endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Mailboxlayer endpoint, making source configuration easy and efficient.
    • To configure this source using a template, follow the instructions in Configure Using a Template.

    Mailboxlayer API sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to validate email addresses from Mailboxlayer endpoints not included in the pre-built templates or apply further customizations to exactly suit your needs.
    • To configure this source manually, follow the instructions in Configure Manually.

Configure Using a Template​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to validate email addresses using common Mailboxlayer endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Mailboxlayer endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.

Endpoint Settings​

  • Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below. Click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.

    Get email information

    This endpoint template validates a single email address and retrieves detailed information about it, including validation status, domain information, and email format details. Use this template when you need to validate individual email addresses and retrieve comprehensive validation information for each email.

    • Enter the email address to validate in the Email field. This should be a valid email address format (e.g., example@example.com). The endpoint will validate this email address and return detailed information about its validity, domain, format, and other relevant details.
    • Select the response format from the Format field. Choose JSON: Packed (value 0) for standard JSON format, or JSON: Prettified (value 1) for human-readable JSON format. The prettified format is useful for debugging but should not be used in production, as it increases response size. The default value is 0 (packed JSON format).

    This endpoint validates a single email address per request. If you need to validate multiple email addresses, use the "Get information about emails (bulk)" endpoint template instead. The endpoint returns comprehensive validation information including email format validity, domain information, SMTP validation, and disposable email detection.

    For detailed information about the API response structure, available validation fields, and API usage limits, see the Mailboxlayer API documentation.

    Get information about emails (bulk)

    This endpoint template validates multiple email addresses in a single request and retrieves detailed information about each email. Use this template when you need to validate multiple email addresses efficiently, as it reduces the number of API calls compared to validating emails individually.

    • Enter a comma-separated list of email addresses to validate in the emails field. You can include up to 25 email addresses per request (e.g., example1@example.net,example2@example.net,example3@example.net). The endpoint will validate all email addresses in the list and return validation information for each email address.

    This endpoint can validate up to 25 email addresses in a single request, making it more efficient than validating emails individually. The endpoint returns an array of validation results, with one result object for each email address in your input list. Each result contains the same validation information as the single email endpoint, including email format validity, domain information, SMTP validation, and disposable email detection.

    For detailed information about the API response structure, available validation fields, and API usage limits, see the Mailboxlayer API documentation.

Endpoint Testing​

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current settings. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Configure Manually​

Mailboxlayer API data sources can be manually configured to validate email addresses using custom API endpoints or configurations not covered by pre-built templates. Manual configuration provides maximum flexibility for accessing custom validation scenarios or when you need advanced API configurations.

With manual configuration, you can also create more complex Mailboxlayer API sources, such as sources that use custom validation parameters or sources that require specific response format configurations.

API Method​

  1. To manually configure this source, select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen.

  2. Select the API method that will be used for calls to the Mailboxlayer API from the Method pulldown menu. Mailboxlayer API uses GET method for all validation requests, as parameters are sent as URL query parameters.

API Endpoint URL​

  1. Enter the URL of the Mailboxlayer API endpoint in the Set API URL field. This should be the complete URL to the Mailboxlayer validation endpoint, typically https://apilayer.net/api/check for single email validation or http://apilayer.net/api/bulk_check for bulk email validation. Include any required query parameters in the URL, such as email for single validation or emails for bulk validation.

Ensure the API endpoint URL is correct and includes all required query parameters. The Mailboxlayer API requires the access_key parameter (from your credential) and the email address(es) to validate. You can test the endpoint using the Test button after configuring the URL.

Response Data Path​

  1. Enter the JSONPath expression in the Response Data Path field to specify which part of the API response should be treated as the relevant data by Nexla. For single email validation, use $ to extract the entire response object. For bulk email validation, use $[*] to extract all email validation results from the response array.

The JSONPath expression must correctly reference the structure of your Mailboxlayer API response. For single email validation, the response is a single object. For bulk validation, the response is an array of validation result objects. Ensure your JSONPath expression matches the structure returned by your specific endpoint. The JSONPath expression determines which data will be extracted and processed by Nexla.

Save the Data Source​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Next button to proceed with the rest of the data flow configuration, or click Save to save the data source configuration for later use.