YouTube API: Dive-In

HigEdWebDev 2009Ron West

Google's mission

• …is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Sometimes making information accessible requires making it available in contexts other than a web browser.

Agenda

• Introduction• Getting Started• Get Content• Interaction• Pulling it Together• Developer Community

Introduction

YouTube in ReviewREST

Google Data APIYouTube Data API

Entries/FeedsAuthentication

YouTube in Review

• Videos• Comments• Ratings• Users• Categories• Keywords/Tags• Channels• Subscriptions

• Messages• Activity Feeds• Recommendations• Friends• Related Videos• Captions• Favorites• Insight Data

REST

• REpresentational State Transfer• Architectural Style – NOT – Standard• More akin to Doc Literal than RPC based Web

Service• Logical URL’s vs. Static URL’s

REST

• Client-Server• Stateless• Cacheable• Uniform Interface• Layered

REST

• HTTP Methods– Get = List or Retrieve– Put = Replace or Update– Post = Create– Delete = Delete

SOAP (RPC/Doc Literal) Web Services

Pros •Single endpoint for all calls• Lanugage, platform and transport agnostic• Built in error handling

Cons• Conceptually more difficult• Harder to develop with (requires tools)

Multiple Endpoints

Pros• Language and platform agnostic• Simpler to develop than SOAP• Concise

Cons• Lack of standards• Tied to HTTP transport

REST Web Services

• Get Video(s)• Edit Video• Delete Video

Get API URL’s for:• Comments• Related Videos• Ratings• Mobile• Versions

Google Data API

• RSS vs. Atom• APP• Get vs. Post vs. Put vs. Delete

Response Codes

• Same response codes for HTTP– 200, 201, 301, 400, 500 etc..

• Codes have similar meaning for each type of call– 200 (OK)– 400 (Bad Request)– 401 (Not Authorized)– 404 (Not Found)– 500 (Internal Error)

• Accompanied with error details (XML in payload)

YouTube Data API

• Version 1• Version 2 (recommended)

YouTube Data API

• Search for Videos– Keywords (tags)– Categories– Query Params (metadata)

• Search for Playlists– Keywords (tags)– Categories

• Search for Channels– Keywords (tags)– Categories

YouTube Data API• Retrieve

– Videos– Comments– Captions– Related Videos– Video Responses– Categories– Keywords– Playlists– Subscriptions– Profiles– Contacts– Messages– Activity Feeds– Insight Data Feed– Favorites

YouTube Data API (cont.)

• Create– Videos– Comments– Captions– Related Videos– Video Responses– Complaint– Rating– Contact– Message– Favorite– Playlist– Subscription

YouTube Data API (cont.)• Update

– Video Metadata– Captions– Profiles– Playlists– Contacts

• Delete– Video– Message– Favorite– Playlist– Subscription– Contact

YouTube Data API

• Batch Processing– Process multiple types of calls in a single request– Each Request in its own <entry> tag

Sample Interaction

• Query API for videos tagged with “SHU”• Display Videos in List• Allow user to Select Video to Display• Display Single Video• Retrieve Comments for that Video• Post Comment• Login• Add to Playlist

Feed<feed [namespaces]>

… metadata …<openSearch:totalResults /><openSearch:startIndex /><openSearch: itemsPerPage /><entry>

… metadata …<media:group/>

</entry> <entry>

… metadata …<media:group/>

</entry>…

</feed>

Entry (video)<entry [namespaces]>

<title/><content/>… metadata …<link rel=“http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video.responses “/><link rel=“http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video.related” /><link rel=“http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#mobile”/><media:group>

<media:content yt:format=“t” url=“…”/><media:thumbnail url=“…” width=“…” height=“…”/><yt: duration /><yt:videoid />

</ media:group ></entry>

Authentication

• AuthSub – YouTube Authentication with “callback” API [difficult]

• OAuth – Standardized Approach (similar in nature to OpenID) [most difficult]

• ClientLogin – Custom Authentication – you call YouTube API track token [easiest]

Getting Started

Google Developers KeyDevelopment Environment

Samples

Google Developers Key

http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/dashboard/

Development Environment

• Accessing dev servers• Plugging in Developers Key

Getting YouTube Content

Standard FeedsDiscovering Videos

ChannelsPlaylists

Displaying Videos

Standard Feeds

http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#Standard_feeds

• Top Rated• Top Favorites• Most Viewed• Most Popular• Most Recent• Etc…• Filter by Time• Filter by Region• Filter by Category

Discovering Videos

• Keywords• Categories• Categories/Keywords• Users

Categorieshttp://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/categories.cat

<app:categories [namespaces]> <atom:category term="Film" label="Film &amp; Animation" xml:lang="en-US"> <yt:assignable/> <yt:browsable regions="AU BR CA CZ DE ES FR GB HK IE IL IN IT JP KR MX NL NZ PL PT RU SE TW US"/> </atom:category></app>

Video by Keyword/Tag

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/

• Append /-/keyword/ to video feed URL• Use query string ?category=keyword• Not (-) Or (|)– /-/Kennedy/-Bobby/-Ted/-Patrick– /-/Kennedy/Bobby|Ted|Patrick

Video by Category

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/

• Append /-/Category/ to video feed URL• Use query string ?category=Category• Multiple Categories– /-/Comedy/Music/Shortmov/– ?category=Comedy,Music,Shortmov

• Category ARE case sensitive

Channelshttp://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/channels?v=2

• Search just like videos using “?q=keywords/tags”

<feed [namespaces>… metadata …<openSearch:totalResults /><openSearch:startIndex /><openSearch: itemsPerPage /><entry>

<title /><summary /><gd:feedlink url=“…” hitcount=“…”>

</entry></feed>

Playlists

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/playlists/snippets?v=2

• Searchjust like a Channel<feed [namespaces>

… metadata …<openSearch:totalResults /><openSearch:startIndex /><openSearch: itemsPerPage /><entry>

<title /><summary /><content src=“…”><yt:countHint /><yt:playlistId />

</entry></feed>

Displaying Videos

• JavaScript API• Flash API

Interacting with YouTube Content

AuthenticationComments

RatingsUpdatingUploading

ClientLogin

https://www.google.com/youtube/accounts/ClientLogin

• Pass in:– Email– Passwd

• Receive: Auth=AIwbFARksypDdUSGGYRI_5v7Z9TaijoPQqpIfCEjTFPAikn_---OC-I1VJtQ

YouTubeUser=testuser• Send into all requests:

Header:Authorization = “GoogleLogin auth=

AIwbFARksypDdUSGGYRI_5v7Z9TaijoPQqpIfCEjTFPAikn_---OC-I1VJtQ”

Comments

• Get Video Feed• Look for:

<gd:comments><gd:feedlink href=“…” countHint=“…” />

</gd:comments>• Pass in

Ratings

• Link embeded in the video feed<link

rel='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video.ratings' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/VIDEO_ID/ratings'/>

• Send back to this URL:<entry [namespaces]>

<gd:rating value="4" min="1" max="5"/></entry>

Updating• Link embeded in the video feed<link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml'

href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/andyland74/uploads/914IMX9RSTE'>

• Send Back to this URL:<entry [namespaces]>

<media:group><media:title type=“…“ /><media:description type=“…“ /><media:category scheme=“…“ /><media:keywords />

</media:group> </entry>

Uploading

http://uploads.gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users

• Include in Header– Authentication– Slug (filename)

• Include in Body– Video File<entry [namespace]>

<media:group> <media:title type=”...” />

<media:description type=“…“ /><media:keywords /><media:category scheme=“…“ />

</media:group></entry>

Challenges

• Documentation is poor• No true congruity in related links• Error messages are non-descriptive

Developer Resources

• Google Group– http://groups.google.com/group/youtube-api-

gdata• Google Code Help– http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?

topic=12357

Contact

• Ron West• @notronwest• facebook.com/notronwest• www.notronwest.com/blog