yt-scraper
Modern YouTube scraper capable of retrieving video and channel info.
Install
First install through NPM:
npm install yt-scraper
Then import into your project:
const ytScraper = require("yt-scraper")
Usage
All returned keys should be treated as optional and may suddenly stop working due to YouTube changes.
Video Info
ytScraper.videoInfo(videoUrl, options = {})
| Argument | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| videoUrl | String |
(www.)youtube.com and youtu.be links are accepted alongside simply providing the video ID without a url. |
| options.includeRawData | Bool |
raw key will contain JSON data provided by YouTube. Is false by default. |
| options.bypassIdCheck | Bool | Make the video request without verifying the ID, only works with a url provided. Is false by default. |
Returns a Promise with the object described in the table below. Throws (see Errors below).
| Key | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| id | String | ID of the video. |
| url | String | URL of the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID). |
| title | String | Title of the video. |
| views | Number | Video views. |
| description | String | Description of the video, will contain \n. |
| category | String | Category of the video. |
| length | Number | Length of the video in seconds. |
| thumbnails | Array<Thumbnail> | Array of thumbnails, most likely contains at least one. Documentation can be found below. |
| live | Bool | Is video a live stream |
| privacy.private | Bool | Is video private. |
| privacy.unlisted | Bool | Is video unlisted. |
| privacy.familySafe | Bool | Is video family safe (deemed by YouTube). |
| privacy.availableCountries | Array<String> | Array of two letter capitalized country coded where video can be viewed (e.g. US). Note it can contain 150+ items. |
| dates.published | Date | Video published video. May vary from upload date. |
| dates.uploaded | Date | Video uploaded date. May vary from publish date. |
| streams.formats | Array | Array of video files that contain audio, may be lower quality than using adaptive formats. |
| streams.adaptiveFormats | Array | Array of video or audio files but the video files don't contain audio. Higher quality than traditional formats but video and audio must be assembled before playback. |
| raw | Object | If options.includeRawData is set to true then contains the raw object given by YouTube that is then parsed to get metadata. |
Thumbnail
Thumbnails are provided by the YouTube API. Each thumbnail may represent the same image at a different size.
| Key | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| url | String | URL of the thumbnail, most likely a jpg. |
| width | Number | Width of thumbnail. |
| height | Number | Height of thumbnail. |
Errors
| Error Name | Description |
|---|---|
YTScraperInvalidVideoURL |
An invalid video url was provided. |
YTScraperInvalidVideoID |
An invalid video id was provided. Can be bypassed for videoInfo method, check documentation. |
YTScraperInvalidChannelID |
An invalid channel id was provided. |
YTScraperInvalidChannelURL |
An invalid channel url was provided. |
YTScraperMissingData |
The webpage provided missing data and the scrape could not be completed. |
Contributing
We heavily value contributions, if you would like to contribute please feel free to put in a pull request.
Contributors
- Thanks to elBarkey for bug fixes and stability contributions in v1.