Getting started
Youteplus is an user friendly interface built on top of Youte, an open-source command-line tool to collect and tidy metadata from YouTube via YouTube Data API v3.
Youteplus can collect metadata of public YouTube videos and channels, as well as comments on videos. Additional features will be added as the tool is expanded, but right now, Youteplus aims to provide an easy tool for users to query public data from YouTube API.
Step 1: Get a Youtube API Key
Getting any data from YouTube Data API requires an API key. This is a step Youteplus cannot do for you. However, we can provide a rough guide of how to get one.
General access to the API is granted for free, and all you need to get started is a Google Account. Once you have a Google Account, go to Google Developers Console.
In the Console, click on the project dropdown next to Google Cloud logo to show your list of projects and to create a new project.
In the Projects window, click on NEW PROJECT to create new project.
You can name your project however you like, and click CREATE.
Once a project has been created, navigate to that project (by clicking on the project dropdown next to Google Cloud logo and selecting the project), and click ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES.
In the APIs and services page, scroll down to find YouTube Data API v3. You can also search for the API using the search bar on that page.
Click ENABLE.
Once the YouTube Data API v3 is enabled, navigate to Credentials through the sidebar on either the YouTube Data API v3 page or your project's main page.
Click CREATE CREDENTIALS at the top and select API key.
Once your API key has been created, you can use it for youteplus. Store it somewhere safe, and don't share your API key with anyone.
Using your API key in Youte
Once you have an API key, you're good to go! Almost all data collection features in Youteplus requires your API key. Youteplus will try to store your API key once you've entered one for as long as it can. If an API key is not found, you will be prompted to provide one.
An easier and recommended way is to create a Youteplus account. Having an account will let you set up a default API key to be used for all Youteplus operations, so that you will no longer have to enter your key. Having an account will also help you manage multiple API keys if you have more than one key, and let you choose which key to be used.
Step 2: Searching or Hydrating video IDs
Once you have an API key, start by doing a search. There are a variety of search parameters you can use to get the most relevant results. Once you get a list of results, you can choose to download the search results, get more metadata for those results, or retrieve comments associated with those videos.
Alternatively, you can hydrate video IDs, whereby you provide a list of video IDs or YouTube URLs and select to retrieve their metadata, comments, or transcriptions.
Rate limit and YouTube API Quota system
Most often, there is a limit to how many requests you can make to YouTube API per day. YouTube Data API uses a quota system, whereby each request, valid or invalid, incurs a quota cost of at least one point. Different endpoints will use up different quota costs. For example:
- search endpoint costs 100 units per request
- video, channel, commentThread, and comment endpoints each costs 1 unit per request
Refer to YouTube Data API's documentation for more details on the costs of each endpoint.
Free accounts get an API quota cap of 10,000 units per project per day, which resets at midnight Pacific Time. You can complete an Audit and Quota Extension form to request additional quota on top of your default allocation.
At present, you can only check your quota usage on the Quotas page in the API Console. The most reliable thing youteplus can do is counting how much time you have left before your quota resets and you get 10,000 new units.
Data governance considerations
Activities involving data collected from YouTube Data API (e.g. collecting, analysing, storing, sharing, and archiving) should be in accordance with YouTube API Terms of Service and Developer Policies.
At the same time, it is best-practice data governance to consider data implications that might arise from using YouTube data. Refer to this guide for a high-level list of data governance considerations.