Working with YouTube API from Python - A Primer

Grabbing data from YouTube with Python is really simple and you can build a ton of apps using this information. It's nothing more than making an HTTP GET request to the proper gdata URL. Then we just take the response in JSON format, decode it, and then can work with it like any other Python dictionary.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import requests
import json

resp = requests.get("http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/most_popular?v=2&alt=jsonc")
if(resp.status_code == 200):
	data = json.loads(resp.content)
	for item in data['data']['items']:
		print "Video Title: %s" % (item['title'])
		print "Video Category: %s" % (item['category'])
		print "Video ID: %s" % (item['id'])
		print "Video Rating: %f" % (item['rating'])
		print "Embed URL: %s" % (item['player']['default'])
		print
else:
	print "There was a problem retrieving the data"

The results look something like this:

Video Title: Minecraft - Dwarf Hole (Diggy Diggy Hole) Fan Song and Animation
Video Category: Shows
Video ID: fR7EAdPUqvQ
Video Rating: 4.862668
Embed URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7EAdPUqvQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Video Title: FAT KID FALLS
Video Category: Entertainment
Video ID: dCd8ojAdUbA
Video Rating: 4.671462
Embed URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCd8ojAdUbA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Video Title: Incredible Shade Illusion!
Video Category: Tech
Video ID: z9Sen1HTu5o
Video Rating: 4.793279
Embed URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Sen1HTu5o&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Video Title: David Guetta feat. Sia - Titanium
Video Category: Music
Video ID: Mb6mS6Yj_UA
Video Rating: 4.845408
Embed URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb6mS6Yj_UA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Video Title: 50 Cal Machine Gun VS. 250 Watermelons
Video Category: Entertainment
Video ID: XyoAP10uKTk
Video Rating: 4.921269
Embed URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyoAP10uKTk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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Requests - Easiest, Most Enjoyable Way to Make HTTP Requests in Python

I've been working for the last week designing and implementing an API for in-house use at a company in Georgia. The API is being built with PHP5 and a micro-framework called Slim. I would have preferred to build it in web.py but because ultimately this decision was left to the owners who are responsible for maintaining it's being done in PHP (a language that they're familiar with).

One of the sore spots has been testing the API as we put it together. In the end it will be used by the developers that they hired to write mobile phone applications. I settled on using a Python script for testing the API but quickly tired of writing the HTTP request code using httplib2 and urllib2. I set out for a better HTTP Request library and quickly found Requests; an elegant and dead-simple library that makes writing code to work with HTTP Requests actually enjoyable.

>>> import requests
>>> r = requests.get("http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/most_popular?v=2&alt=jsonc")
>>> r.status_code
200
>>> print r.content
{"apiVersion":"2.1","data":{"updated":"2011-09-09T19:54:17.000-07:00","totalItems":99,"startIndex":1,"itemsPerPage":25,"items":[{"id":"X9YMU0WeBwU","uploaded":"2011-08-17T00:52:31.000Z","updated":"2011-09-11T01:09:51.000Z","uploader":"LadyGagaVEVO","category":"Music","title":"Lady Gaga - Yoü And I (Official Video)","description":"Music video by Lady Gaga performing Yoü And I (Official Video). Lady Gaga's \"Yoü And I\" video received 1,054,214 video views on YouTube prior to the official VEVO video release.  © 2011 Interscope Records","tags":["You","and","new","video","song","official","Laurieann","Gibson","haus","of","gaga","Mother","Monster"],"thumbnail":{"sqDefault":"http://i.ytimg.com/vi/X9YMU0WeBwU/default.jpg","hqDefault

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I think I will also go back through and rewrite a bunch of my YQL code to use Requests instead for it's HTTP request needs. This should be a standard part of your Python toolbox for sure.