Adding a topic to an existing contact list (NotFoundException - List doesn't contain Topic)

Question

I have a contact list where each contact has a list of topic preferences, e.g.

```json
// aws sesv2 get-contact-list --contact-list-name my_contact_list

{
  "ContactListName": "my_contact_list",
  "Topics": [
    {
      "TopicName": "transactional_emails_1",
      "DisplayName": "...",
      "Description": "...",
      "DefaultSubscriptionStatus": "OPT_IN"
    },
    {
      "TopicName": "transactional_emails_2",
      "DisplayName": "...",
      "Description": "...",
      "DefaultSubscriptionStatus": "OPT_IN"
    }
  ],
  "CreatedTimestamp": "2022-04-12T11:40:48.061000+01:00",
  "LastUpdatedTimestamp": "2022-05-12T11:01:13.596000+01:00",
  "Tags": []
}
```

And when I list the contacts:

```json
// aws sesv2 list-contacts --contact-list-name my_contact_list

{
      "EmailAddress": "name.surname@example.com",
      "TopicPreferences": [
        {
          "TopicName": "transactional_emails_1",
          "SubscriptionStatus": "OPT_IN"
        }
      ],
      "TopicDefaultPreferences": [
        {
          "TopicName": "transactional_emails_2",
          "SubscriptionStatus": "OPT_IN"
        }
      ],
      "UnsubscribeAll": false,
      "LastUpdatedTimestamp": "2022-05-16T09:14:16.483000+01:00"
    }
```

I would now need to add a new topic to the contact list.
However, I can't find any way to update the list, or the existing contacts in that list.

When I try to send an email to that list with a new topic, I get this error:

```
"An error occurred (NotFoundException) when calling the SendEmail operation: List: my_contact_list doesn't contain Topic: transactional_emails_3
```

What I would end up with is a situation where the contact list contains the new topic (`transactional_emails_3`) and each user in that list is subscribed to it:

```json
// aws sesv2 get-contact-list --contact-list-name my_contact_list

{
  "ContactListName": "my_contact_list",
  "Topics": [
    {
      "TopicName": "transactional_emails_1",
      "DisplayName": "...",
      "Description": "...",
      "DefaultSubscriptionStatus": "OPT_IN"
    },
    {
      "TopicName": "transactional_emails_2",
      "DisplayName": "...",
      "Description": "...",
      "DefaultSubscriptionStatus": "OPT_IN"
    },
   {
      "TopicName": "transactional_emails_3",
      "DisplayName": "...",
      "Description": "...",
      "DefaultSubscriptionStatus": "OPT_IN"
    }
  ],
  "CreatedTimestamp": "2022-04-12T11:40:48.061000+01:00",
  "LastUpdatedTimestamp": "2022-05-12T11:01:13.596000+01:00",
  "Tags": []
}
```

Can it be done using the AWS SDK (SESv2 API)?

Answer

Hello,

I was looking over the Simple Email Service (SES) V2 available APIs on our documentation, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_Operations.html , and I believe the APIs you’ll want to take a look over are the following:

-	UpdateContactList: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_UpdateContactList.html

-	UpdateContact: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_UpdateContact.html

As far as the next steps I’d recommend creating a simple contact list with a few test contacts to iron out the solution you’re going for, just so that users aren’t accidently sent some items and the production system is intact while getting the solution engineered.

If those two APIs above aren’t able to complete what you need then the first link has the remaining other available APIs where you might be able to find a more precise one.

Adding a topic to an existing contact list (NotFoundException - List doesn't contain Topic)

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