New user, looking for documentation

[Anonymous]

I recently started working on an existing project already using Marketo. However I've never used Marketo before and would like to review documentation to make sure that our implementation is correct. I see that there's a University tab at the top of the page here, but it also seems that it mostly contains links to video instead of actual text documention. I'm not really interested in sifting through videos to find what I'm looking for. I want to be able to search and copy/paste if need be.

Could someone tell if me if there is a link to a PDF file or HTML page that I can used as documentation reference? Please and thank you.

On a side note I'm really surprised that Marketo doesn't provide documentation online. I googled for "Marketo Developer Docs" and found only 3rd party links, none of which contained documentation on the core Marketo product. That's a big oversight and one that you should consider addressing. As a developer I want to know how I'll be implementing something before I'd be willing to sign off on purchasing it.

[Anonymous]

Andy,

I am writing a Marketo Guide called the Marketing Rockstar's Guide to Marketo. You can see some of what I've done so far at http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com

I don't have APIs or the full reference chapter done quite yet. I'm mostly helping people understand how to do key things within Marketo.

You can also visit test.hollebone.ca for good ideas on more technical issues related to javascript, jquery, and APIs.

Is there something in particular you are looking for?

[Anonymous]

I've used Josh's guides, and can give them my highest recommendation.

One other resource worth checking out are the "Marketo Masters" presentations. While not documentation per se, the slide decks do provide insight and instruction on the specific task being described.

I'd also use the Community if you have specific questions--search first, and if you don't find an answer go ahead and ask.  There's a good chance someone here has either raised a similar question (and received an asnwer) or will be able to answer for you. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Steve!

Also, some of the newer features have more extensive documentation right here. They are often listed as Tutorials. Most of what I write about is where the docs are not clear or don't help actual markters use the system.

Again, let me know about specific needs so I can organize a solution for you.

[Anonymous]

Josh/et al. Thanks for the blazingly quick reply. I barely had time to get coffee.

Let me give you the sitch in a nutshell.

My company has a signup form for a trial account (http://myemma.com/trial).
When a user submits the form we're using JavaScript to post the form to Marketo to create a lead:
        http://visit.myemma.com/index.php/leadCapture/save
We then waited 2 seconds and posted to our application to create a user account.

I fully acknowledge that this isn't a good idea. But it's what we had in place when I started.

Up until Monday this was working acceptably. On Monday morning we were informed that leads were being created in Marketo, but not in our system. We determined that the request from Marketo was now being returned so quickly that our system never had time to create the user before being redirected with Marketo's 302 response. Currently we've completely commented out the call to Marketo on this form so that at least we're properly creating users in our system.

What we'd like to do now is to change the way we're submitting to Marketo.

One option is see if there's another option for submission up front. Perhaps rather than returning a 302 response to the calling page, Marketo could instead perform an HTTP post to a URL of our choosing and include all of the user's form data.

Another option is rather than attempt to post the same form data twice, we could submit all of the information to our application and create a user as was previously happening. We could then spawn an HTTP request to Marketo with the necessary information to create a fully qualified lead in Marketo's systems.

There might be other options, but without being able to review Marketo documentation we're left without information.

Of primary interest: If we do this ourselves, we need to make absolutely sure that any tracking codes on our website get carried through our app creation process and submitted to Marketo.

Does that sum things up?

[Anonymous]

While neither of these link to formal documentation, they might be good starting points:


If you're looking to use an external form to post data to Marketo, this page links to resources for the SOAP API 
https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000Kyr5
Or search for SOAP API in the community.

You could  also use a Marketo form to post the data to an external database using Webhooks.  This is new within the past six months:
https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000L7ZF
Or search for Webhooks in the community.

[Anonymous]

Actually, I'm looking at the Munchkin documention found here:
https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000Kyr7

If I'm reading it right, I might be able to do an AJAX post to the Marketo site using Munchkin. Can either of you confirm this? We're already using Munchkin on our trial signup page.

[Jep_Castelein2 · Accepted solution]

if you have your own forms on your website but you want to post into Marketo, you have multiple options:
1.       Change the form to post into Marketo directly; you need to make sure the field names exactly match the Marketo specs (see “Marketo Forms on Non-Marketo Pages”). In your case, you may want to use Webhooks to post into your own system
2.       Have your server-side application capture the initial form submission but repost to Marketo on the server (server-side form post)
3.       Use the Marketo SOAP API to create new Leads or updates existing Leads; has more advanced options, but does not give a “Fills Out Form” event (see “Marketo Enterprise SOAP API”)
4.       Use the Munchkin JavaScript API, which is the least preferred option since it runs client-side (see “Munchkin JavaScript API”)

Let me know if you need more info on option 2 (I have a draft knowledge base document that I can share with you). 

Hope this helps, 
Jep

[Anonymous]

Jep. That's what I was looking for, thanks. I just did some checking and we're already utilizing Munchkin on our landing page. So let me clarify.

If I use the mktoMunchkinFunction ('associateLead') option will this create a user in the Marketo system in exactly the same way that posting to http://visit.myemma.com/index.php/leadCapture/save would? It might not be the most preferred option but it's one that we're already utilizing and would require the least amount of time to implement.

[Jep_Castelein2]

Yes, Munchkin API 'associateLead' will create/update the lead in Marketo. It will not give an 'fills out form' event, just a 'change data value' (updated lead) or 'lead is created' (net new lead). 

Jep