02.19Youtube Data API AS3 - First Tutorial
Hi everyone,
In this tutorial I will demonstrate how to use the YouTube Data API AS3 Library to:
- search for videos using a keywords, categories and tags;
- demonstrate how to distinguish between feeds returned to you by the API by using the requestId;
- get information from the result feed, in this case a VideoFeed object. We will get the video, it's main URL, then go through the different thumbnails available for a specific video.
So let's get started
Actionscript:
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package ca.newcommerce.youtube
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{
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// the different imports we will be needing
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import ca.newcommerce.youtube.data.ThumbnailData;
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import ca.newcommerce.youtube.data.VideoData;
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import ca.newcommerce.youtube.events.VideoFeedEvent;
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import ca.newcommerce.youtube.feeds.VideoFeed;
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import ca.newcommerce.youtube.iterators.ThumbnailIterator;
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import ca.newcommerce.youtube.webservice.YouTubeClient;
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// our class
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public class SearchSample
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{
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// the web service client reference
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protected var _ws:YouTubeClient;
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// an id to identify our request
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protected var _requestId:Number;
So far we've defined our class, SearchSample, and two member variables: _ws (which will contain a reference to the YouTubeClient singleton) and _requestId (to store the unique id associated with our specific request).
Next we will get a reference to the YouTubeClient class, listen for the proper event, launch our search request and store the requestId associated with it.
Actionscript:
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// the constructor to our sample
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public function SearchSample()
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{
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// get a reference to the YouTubeClient instance
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_ws = YouTubeClient.getInstance();
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// listed for the proper event to be fired by the client,
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// the function "doSearchResults" will be called once the results are received
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_ws.addEventListener(VideoFeedEvent.VIDEO_DATA_RECEIVED, doSearchResults);
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// search for the string : "american idol"
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// while not specifying an author
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// while not specifying any categories
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// look for videos tagged with "music"
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// and not tagged with "male"
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// order by view count
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// include restricted material
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// finally store the resulting requestId inside of SearchId.
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_requestId = _ws.getVideos("american idol", "", null, null, ["music"], ["male"], YouTubeClient.ORDER_BY_VIEWCOUNT, YouTubeClient.RACY_INCLUDE);
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}
Now on with the event handler, doSearchResults. We will:
- make sure we are treating the right request, since YouTubeClient is a singleton, this can become important when you have multiple calls being made from different places in your program.
- get a reference to the VideoFeed object contained inside of the VideoFeedEvent object passed as a parameter to the event handler.
- create a variable to contain the VideoData objects describing the videos received in the results
- iterate through the first set of results (since we are getting the first 50 by default
- see some useful variables such as the Title of the video and it's author's name
- get a reference to the ThumbnailIterator which will give us access to all available thumbnails
- create a variable to contain ThumbnailData objects which describe each thumbnail available
Actionscript:
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// our function definition, note the evt variable is of type VideoFeedEvent
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protected function doSearchResults(evt:VideoFeedEvent):void
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{
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// check to see if this request's response is the right one
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if(_requestId == evt.requestId)
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{
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// get a reference to the VideoFeed
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var feed:VideoFeed = evt.feed;
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// prepare a variable to hold the individual Video's data.
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var video:VideoData;
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// iterate through the feed results
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while(video = feed.next())
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{
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// video title
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video.title;
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// video author's name
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video.authors.first().username;
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// get a reference to the ThumbnailIterator
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var tnIt:ThumbnailIterator = video.media.thumbnails;
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// prepare a variable to hold the individual thumbnail's data
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var tn:ThumbnailData;
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// iterate through each thumbnail
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while(tn = tnIt.next())
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{
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// thumbnail url
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tn.url
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// thumbnail width
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tn.width;
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// thumbnail height
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tn.height;
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// thumbnail time sequence
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tn.time;
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}
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}
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}
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else
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{
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trace("this request:"+evt.requestId+" is not ours. we'll wait for the next one");
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}
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}
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}
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}
That's it folks! The project is now available at Google Code, here: http://code.google.com/p/as3-youtube-data-api/
I could use help with documentation, if anybody feels up to the task, leave your email or contact info in a comment!
Related posts (automatically generated):
- YouTube Data API ActionScript 3
- Youtube Data API in AS3 is ready!
- Youtube Data API AS3 - YouTubeClient functions & associated events.
- YouTube Data API - new rollout
- Sample Code - Using the YouTube AS3 API with the YouTube Player API
Hello, Im trying to play with this great library but i cant make it work on browser…inside flash everything its fine. Its crossdomain working???
thanks
March 24th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
sorry, sorry, sorry
i just read the previuos post
and its working really fine !!!!
thanks a lot
March 24th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Getting the following error on doLogin:
WSClient.doHttpStatus:200
doLogin
ArgumentError: Error #2096: The HTTP request header Authorization cannot be set via ActionScript.
at flash.net::URLStream/load()
at flash.net::URLLoader/load()
at ca.newcommerce.youtube.webservice::YouTubeClient/runLoader()
at ca.newcommerce.youtube.webservice::YouTubeClient/rate()
at ca.newcommerce.youtube::Test/doLoggedIn()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
at ca.newcommerce.youtube.webservice::YouTubeClient/doLogin()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
at flash.net::URLLoader/onComplete()
Can you advise please? Thanks
March 29th, 2008 at 10:16 am
when I try to load video.swfUrl on stage, it displays a warning in debug:
Warning: Domain i.ytimg.com does not specify a meta-policy. Applying default meta-policy ‘all’. This configuration is deprecated. See http://www.adobe.com/go/strict_policy_files to fix this problem.
Do you can help me?
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Alan,
I am working on a version which uses a AMFPHP Proxy. This problem you had is caused by the security sandbox from the Flash Player, by using a proxy we have complete freedom. In PHP and most other programming languages you don’t have these (stupid) limitations. I use cURL to make the requests, and return the responses using AMFPHP. It works quite nice. I recently posted on it. The API will be updated shortly.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Pedro,
this problem is due to the crossdomain.xml policy file found on i.ytimg.com, over which I have no control. I suggest posting this comment in the google group on the Youtube Data API developer forum.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:40 am
[...] Youtube Data API AS3 - Tutorial [...]
June 25th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Hi,
Great post! Have you updated API with the fix for policy issue?
June 25th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Hi,
i really liked this AS3 Classes, but i can´t download from code.google…there is a problem? -
July 10th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Hello,
I’m a AS3 new beginner and I’ve read your sample code in this article. But when I press Ctrl + Enter to test, it show: “Error:5000, it must have sub-class “flash.display.MovieClip”
Then I import flash.display.MovieClip, but still pop the same error code 5000. Could you kindly give me some suggestions?
Thanks a lot!!
July 21st, 2008 at 3:03 am
Hi,
I tried to use the method getVideo from YouTubeFeedClient class, but I have the next message:
WSClient.doHttpStatus:200
doVideoLoaded
The code it is the follow:
_ws = YouTubeClient.getInstance();
_ws.addEventListener(VideoFeedEvent.VIDEO_DATA_RECEIVED, doSearchResults);
_requestId = _ws.getVideos(”uEGPF1be6RM”);
anyone know, what happend?
Reagards.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am
[...] Youtube Data API AS3 [...]
July 30th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Hi!
Impressive work indeed, and its really amazing the kind of interaction with Youtube you can acchieve.
I am having a really annoying problem though, where amidst all the data can I retrive the URL to the netstream I need to connect my Video player to actually play the stream?
TIA
Niklas Wörmann
Sweden
October 13th, 2008 at 2:18 am
[...] Youtube Data API AS3 [...]
November 17th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Okay…I think I must be a complete idiot, cause I’m really having a hard time getting this. (Though I’m making progress)
I’m trying to get a the ten most recently uploaded videos from a particular youtube account, and I just can’t seem to make it happen.
(I think I need to use “VideoFeedEvent.VIDEO_DATA_RECEIVED”, but I’m not sure how to do it…)
So far, this is the most mack-daddy site that I’ve found for the youtube API. Can somebody please help me? PLEASE!!!
March 11th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Okay…I figured it out. The latest download (0.95) gets a little confused, because the test files and classes are trying to access YouTubeClient.as and it doesn’t exist anymore. (They are now YouTubeDataClient.as & YouTubeFeedClient.as)
Simply switch it to the most appropriate file and you’ll be golden.
Now, if I can just figure out how to attach my new content to items on my stage I’ll be crazy happy!
March 12th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Two days later…still trying to figure out the getAt method. ARGH!!!
I think that’s how I need to call specific lines from the feed.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Great work!!! works great in flash builder 4 too
July 17th, 2010 at 1:34 pm