youtube-comment-api

Youtube Comment API

Purpose

A Node.js API for the YouTube comment system. Scrapes comments and comment information from a given YouTube video on demand.

This project is in no way affiliated with YouTube.

Installation

Install as a module via npm.

$ npm install youtube-comment-api

Usage

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v={videoID}

var fetchCommentPage = require('youtube-comment-api')(config)
fetchCommentPage(videoID, pageToken, cb);

Parameter	Meaning
config	(optional) module coniguration
videoID	ID of youtube Video
pageToken	(optional) token of page to be requested
callback	(optional) callback function

Promises API

var fetchCommentPage = require('youtube-comment-api')();
// request first page of comments (most recent)
fetchCommentPage('{videoID}').then(function (commentPage) {
  console.log(commentPage);
  return commentPage.nextPageToken;
}).then(function (pageToken) {
  // request next page
  return fetchCommentPage('{videoID}', pageToken)
}).then(function (commentPage) {
  console.log(commentPage);
});

Callback API

var fetchCommentPage = require('youtube-comment-api')();
// request first page of comments (most recent)
fetchCommentPage('{videoID}', function (err, commentPage) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(commentPage);
  // request next page
  fetchCommentPage('{videoID}', commentPage.nextPageToken, function(err, commentPage) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(commentPage);
  });
});

Configuration

Below are the possible configuration options and their default values.

var fetchCommentPage = require('youtube-comment-api')({
  includeReplies: true,
  includeVideoInfo: true,
  fetchRetries: 3,
  sessionTimeout: 60 * 30, // 30 minutes
  cacheDuration: 60 * 30, // 30 minutes
  cacheInterval: 60 * 5 // 5 minutes
});

Option	Meaning
includeReplies	Also fetch replies for each comment (default: true)
includeVideoInfo	Fetch meta information about video (default: true)
fetchRetries	The number of retries if a fetch fails (default: 3)
sessionTimeout	Number of seconds after which the acquired session token is discarded and a new one is requested. (default: 30 mins)
cacheDuration	Number of seconds after which cached video meta info will be discarded (default: 30 mins)
cacheInterval	Length of the interval in seconds at which the video meta info cache entries are checked and discarded if expired. (default 5 mins)

Result

{
  pageToken: {{ page token of current page }},
  nextPageToken: {{ page token of next page }},
  videoCommentCount: {{ number of comments on the video }},
  videoTitle: {{ video title }},
  videoThumbnail: {{ URL to video Thumbnail }},
  comments: [
	{
      id: {{ comment ID }},
      user: {{ username of author }},
      date: {{ how long ago the comment was posted }},
      commentText: {{ the comment }},
      timestamp: {{ timestamp based on date }},
      likes: {{ number of upvotes }},
      hasReplies: {{ whether this comment has replies }},
      numberOfReplies: {{ number of replies to the comment }},
      replies [
        {
          {{ ... same fields as comment }}
        },
        ...
      ],
      ...
    }
  ]
}