youtube-video-api

Straightforward node.js/io.js programmatic and command-line interface to easily upload, list, update, rate, thumbnail and delete videos from YouTube using OAuth2 and Google API v3.

It was designed to provide a reliable server-to-server automation solution, with additional support for transparent Google API OAuth2 token negotiation retrieval using Nightmare + Electron in case that you don't have a valid OAuth2 token or simply you want to use a fresh token every time automatically

Rationale note: I created this package to solve my personal frustration after using further solutions to interact with Youtube Videos API in a realiable way. I wish it can dissipate your frustration as well.

Installation

npm install youtube-video-api --save

For command-line usage install it as global package:

npm install -g youtube-video-api

Configuration

If you already have a valid OAuth2 token, you can create in your working directory a file called .google-oauth2-credentials.json to store it.

This will avoid you to define your Google account email and password to automatically obtain a valid OAuth2 token using PhantomJS, however if you want to get a fresh OAuth2 token automatically on-the-fly read this

Example file:

{
  "access_token": "xx99.xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "refresh_token": "1/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxx",
  "expiry_date": 1425349408683
}

Only access_token and refresh_token fields are mandatory.

Command-line interface

youtube-video-api --help

Usage: bin/youtube-video-api <command> [options]

Commands:
  upload    Upload a video to Youtube                                           
  delete    Remove a video from Youtube                                         
  update    Update a video from Youtube                                         
  rate      Rate a video from Youtube                                           
  list      List videos from Youtube                                            

Options:
  -h, --help      Show help                                                     
  --version       Show version number                                           
  --file, -f      path to video config JSON file                                
  --client, -c    Google API Client ID. You can pass it as env variable:
                  GOOGLE_API_CLIENT_ID
                  [required]  [default: ""]
  --secret, -s    Google API Client Secret. You can pass it as env variable:
                  GOOGLE_API_CLIENT_SECRET
                               [required]  [default: ""]
  --token, -t     Google API OAuth2 token. You can pass it as env variable:
                  GOOGLE_API_TOKEN
  --refresh, -r   Google API OAuth2 refresh token. You can pass it as env
                  variable: GOOGLE_API_REFRESH_TOKEN
  --email, -e     Google account email, used for automatic OAuth2. You can pass
                  it as env variable: GOOGLE_LOGIN_EMAIL
  --password, -p  Google account password, used for automatic OAuth2. You can
                  pass it as env variable: GOOGLE_LOGIN_PASSWORD
  --account, -a   Google default email account to use in case of multiple 
                  associated Google accounts
  --id, -i        Video idenfitier
  --video, -v     File path to video
  --rating, -x    Video rating score
  --next, -n      Return the next page token results for list command
  --prev, -p      Return the previous page token results for list command
  --credentials, -w  custom path to JSON file with token credentials
  --debug, -d     Enable debug mode [default: false]

Examples:
  youtube-video-api upload -c clientId -s clientSecret -f config.json -v video.mp4
  youtube-video-api remove -c clientId -s clientSecret -i 23XsFi23LKD
  youtube-video-api update -c clientId -s clientSecret -c config.json
  youtube-video-api rate -c clientId -s clientSecret -i 23XsFi23LKD -v 5
  youtube-video-api list -c clientId -s clientSecret --next

API

var Youtube = require('youtube-video-api')

var youtube = Youtube({ 
  video: {
    part: 'status,snippet' 
  }
})

var params = {
  resource: {
    snippet: {
      title: 'test video',
      description: 'This is a test video uploaded via the YouTube API'
    },
    status: {
      privacyStatus: 'private'
    }
  }
}

youtube.authenticate('my-client-id', 'my-client-secret', function (err, tokens) {
  if (err) return console.error('Cannot authenticate:', err)
  uploadVideo()
})

function uploadVideo() {
  youtube.upload('path/to/video.mp4', params, function (err, video) {
    // 'path/to/video.mp4' can be replaced with readable stream. 
    // When passing stream adding mediaType to params is advised.
    if (err) {
      return console.error('Cannot upload video:', err)
    }

    console.log('Video was uploaded with ID:', video.id)
  
    // this is just a test! delete it
    youtube.delete(video.id, function (err) {
      if (!err) console.log('Video was deleted')
    })
  })
}

youtube([ options ])

Youtube Videos API constructor. Returns an evented API based on EventEmitter subscribers

Supported options:

• saveTokens boolean - Save OAuth tokens in .google-oauth2-credentials.json. Default true
• video object - Default video options to send to the API. Documentation here
• email string - Optional. Google Account email login required obtain a valid OAuth2 token. You can pass it as env variable GOOGLE_LOGIN_EMAIL
• password string - Optional. Google Account password login required to obtain a valid OAuth2 token. You can pass it as env variable GOOGLE_LOGIN_PASSWORD
• clientId string - Optional. Google API OAuth Client ID
• clientSecret string - Optional. Google API OAuth Client Secret
• tokens object - Optional. Google API OAuth Client Tokens. Object must contains the following keys: access_token and refresh_token
• useAccount string - In case of multiple associated Google accounts, define the email of the desired account to use
• file string - Credentials JSON file path. Default to .google-oauth2-credentials.json
• scope string - Google API scope. Default to https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload

youtube#authenticate([ clientId, clientSecret [, tokens ] ], cb)

Alias: auth

Authorize the client to perform read/write API operations. You must call this method on each new Youtube client before interact with the API.

This function is variadic (it allow multiple number of arguments)

If the file google-oauth2-credentials.json already exists with valid OAuth2 tokens, you can simply call this method just with a callback

youtube.auth(function (err, tokens) {
  if (err) return console.error('Cannot auth:', err)

  console.log('Auth tokens:', tokens)
})

youtube#upload(video, params [, callback ])

Alias: insert

Upload a new video with custom metadata. video argument can be the path to the video file or a readable stream of the video. When passing stream adding mediaType to params is advised.
You can see all the allowed params here

youtube#delete(id [, callback ])

Alias: remove

Delete a video, passing its ID. See endpoint documentation

youtube#list(options, callback)

Returns a list of videos that match the API request parameters.

youtube#update(options, callback)

Updates a video's metadata. See endpoint documentation

youtube#rate(id, rating, callback)

Add a like or dislike rating to a video or remove a rating from a video. See endpoint documentation

youtube#getRating(id, callback)

Retrieves the ratings that the authorized user gave to a list of specified videos. See endpoint documentation

youtube#thumbnails(id, media, callback)

Uploads a custom video thumbnail to YouTube and set it for the given video ID. See endpoint documentation

youtube.thumbnails(videoId, { 
    mimeType: 'image/jpg', 
    body: fs.createReadStream('image.jpg') 
  }, function (err) {
    if (err) console.error('Cannot define the thumbnail')
  })

youtube.google

Expose the node.js Google APIs module

youtube.youtube

Expose the node.js Google APIs YouTube API constructor

youtube.VERSION

Expose the package current semantic version

Google OAuth

Automatically obtain a valid OAuth2 token

Be sure you have a project and a Web Application credentials with a Client ID and Client Secret from the Google API Console > API & Auth > Credentials

Then you must add the following URI as allowed redirects (without final slash):

http://localhost:8488

Then you should see something like:

Example getting a valid OAuth token on-the-fly:

var youtube = Youtube({ 
  video: {
    part: 'status,snippet'
  },
  email: '[email protected]',
  password: 'svp3r_p@s$p0rd'
})

youtube.on('auth:success', function (err) {
  if (!err) {
    youtube.upload('path/to/video.mp4', {}, function (err, video) {
      if (!err) console.log('Video was uploaded:', video.id)
    })
  }
})

youtube.authenticate('my-client-id', 'my-client-secret')

License

MIT © Tomas Aparicio