Making an Ajax newsletter sign-up box

One way to have users added to our e-mail list is to have them sign-up through our website. In this recipe, we'll be using MailChimp's API and a modal window to show a sign-up form and have it sent through an Ajax call.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we'll need a standard Laravel installation. We'll also be using the MailChimp API for the newsletter; a free account and API key can be created at www.mailchimp.com.

How to do it…

To complete this recipe, follow the given steps:

1. Open the composer.json file and update the require section to resemble the following code:

     "require": {
     "laravel/framework": "4.0.*",
     "rezzza/mailchimp": "dev-master"
   }

2. In the command-line window, where the artisan file is located, update Composer with the following command:

     php composer.phar update
   

3. In the app/config directory, create a file named mailchimp.php:

   <?php
   
   return array('key' => '12345abcde-us1','list' => '123456789'
   );

4. In the views directory, create a file named...