YouTube Data API v3 Tools Library

The YouTube Data API v3 Tools Library is a concise wrapper around the YouTube API. The YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools class and sub-classes contain hundreds of methods to interact with YouTube. These methods cover all categories such as videos, video categories, playlists, playlist items, subscriptions, comments, comment threads, captions, live streaming, channels, thumbnails, watermarks, localizations, activities, search, members, membership levels & abuse reporting. I made sure to cover all the bases.

Setup

OAuth 2.0 credentials

A client_secret.json file is needed in order for this class to be functional. Or should I say ... classy ....

Required Python modules

• google-auth
• google-auth-oauthlib
• google-auth-httplib2
• google-api-python-client

Keep in mind that you need to have the proper OAuth 2.0 authentication set up and the permissions to manage a YouTube account. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to obtain a client_secret.json file.

Please also note that the steps for setting up OAuth 2.0 authentication and using the client_secret.json file might change over time. For the latest and most detailed instructions, you should refer to the official Google API documentation for the YouTube API and OAuth 2.0 authentication for Python. https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/quickstart/python

1. Google Cloud Console:

To use the YouTube API or any other Google API, you need to create a project on the Google Cloud Console and enable the APIs you want to use.

2. OAuth 2.0 Credentials:

After creating the project and enabling the YouTube API, you need to create OAuth 2.0 credentials. These credentials are used to identify your application and to authenticate and authorize access to the API. The credentials contain a client ID, client secret, and other information.

3. Download Client Secret:

Once you create OAuth 2.0 credentials, you can download the client_secret.json file from the Google Cloud Console. This file contains the client ID and client secret, which are used in the authentication process.

4. Authentication Flow:

When you run your Python application that interacts with the YouTube API, it will prompt the user to authenticate their Google account through a web browser (if necessary). The client_secret.json file is used during this authentication flow to identify your application and establish a secure connection.

5. Access Tokens:

After the user grants permission to your application, the authentication server provides your application with an access token. This access token is used in API requests to prove that your application has been granted permission to access the user's resources.

6. Protecting Client Secret:

The client_secret.json file contains sensitive information (client secret), so it should be kept confidential and not shared or exposed publicly. It is important to store the client_secret.json file securely on the server-side of your application.

When you use the Google API Client Library for Python to interact with the YouTube API, you'll need to set up the OAuth 2.0 authentication flow and provide the path to the client_secret.json file in your code to initiate the authentication process.

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Usage

!!! NOTE: Any sensitive data used in these examples is void or not real !!!

First import the youtube_api_tools module.

import youtube_api_tools

Next create a YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools object and pass the path to your client_secret.json file path as the first argument to the constructor and a list of scopes that you want to use as the 2nd argument. Then optionally pass an API developer key as the 3rd argument if you have one.

_client_secret = "client_secret_913312345634-hsdfrlsskr1gqsedjdsddnjga57j84s0chml.apps.googleusercontent.com.json"
_scopes = ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly"]
_dev_key = "A01ssSpaAWMeM1XsfguYJFxxnDIamdfgh-tLSAs823d"

youtube = youtube_api_tools.YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools(
    _client_secret,
    _scopes,
    _dev_key
)

The constructor will call the get_authenticated_service() method which will set up the OAuth 2.0 flow using your client_secret.json file to authenticate the user and will store the authorization token in a token.pickle file. The actual service is wrapped in a method called _get_authenticated_service() and dependency injected. Pretty much all of the YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools class methods and subclass methods rely on this authentication, so the service returned from _get_authenticated_service will be stored in a class variable called self.service. Upon instanciation of any subclass of YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools a reference to the YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools class will be passes. This we way have a reference to the service stored in self.service in all sub classes and methods. Here is an example:

tube = YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools(<your json>, <scopes>, <dev key>)

# pass 'tube' as the first argument to the subclasses upon
# instanciaution.
channel = tube.Channel(tube) 
playlist = tube.Playlist(tube)
item = tube.PlaylistItem(tube)
video = tube.Video(tube)

cnn_channel_id = channel.get_id(False, "CNN")
cnn_playlist_id = playlist.get_id("US News", cnn_channel_id)
usnews_playlist_videos = playlist.get_playlist_items(cnn_playlist_id)

# Like and unlike a playlists videos based on filters.
for playlist_video in cnn_playlist_videos:
    video_id = playlist_video["id"]
    video_title = playlist_video["snippet"]["title"]
    if video_title == "somethin somethin":
        video.like(video_id)
    else:
        video.unlike(video_id)
    

If no calls to the API are made after a few minutes the user will have to reauthenticate and grant the app permissions again in the browser. The token.pickle file will no longer work until this is done.

Note: The token.pickle file is important because without it the reauthentication process has to be done with every individual call to the YouTube Data API.

Once you have created the YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools object. The following subclasses are available:

• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Channel
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.ChannelSection
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Playlist
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.PlaylistItem
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Video
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.VideoCategories
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Captions
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Subscriptions
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Members
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.MembershipLevel
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Comment
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.CommentThread
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Thumbnail
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.WaterMark
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Activity
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Search
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.LiveBroadcasts
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.Localization
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.AbuseReport
• YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools.AbuseReport.VideoAbuseReportReason

These classes wrap each resource type and contain a ton of methods to interact with them in various ways.

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Get your channel ID:

tube = youtube_api_tools.YouTubeDataAPIv3Tools(arg1, arg2, ...)
channel = tube.Channel(tube) 

Get a playlist ID:

playlist_id = youtube.get_playlist_id()

Get a video ID:

The rest of the documentation will be finished soon.

Resources

For information on common API errors check out API_ERRORS.md or the official documentation here: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/errors

For information on the resources that these class methods act on check out API_RESOURCES.md