PHP server-side YouTube V3 OAuth API video upload guide

Dec 2014 – Please note this post is based on the 1.0.5 version of the API. If you are using the latest version you’ll need to update file paths as the file/folder structure has changed significantly.

Many bothans died to bring you this information. And when I say bothans, I refer of course to brain cells that have died as result of me smashing my head against the YouTube api.

To make this work, you’ll need to create a dummy web application that can capture the refresh token generated when you authorise your app. You can read a detailed explanation of what we’ll be doing and how the OAuth process works here.

This implementation has no requirements for any PHP frameworks (such as Zend). It is a barebones implementation based off the documentation for the YouTube V3 API utilising the Google PHP API client.

Creating your project

1. You’ll need to head over to https://console.developers.google.com/ and create a new project.
2. Then go and enable the YouTube Data API – (Your Project > APIS & AUTH > APIs)
3. We’ll now need to create some credentials. Go to Your Project > APIS & AUTH > Credentials
4. Click “Create new Client ID” and then under “Application Type” select “Web Application”.
5. You’ll then need to enter your JavaScript origin and authorised redirect URI. I just set this to localhost, but you can set it to where ever you want.
6. We’ve now created our client ID, we just need to fill in the Consent Screen. We can do this by navigating to Your Project > APIS & AUTH > Consent Screen. Once you’re on this page, ensure you fill out all the required fields (Email Address and Product Name).
7. Hurray, we’ve created our project.

Getting your refresh token

I used the following PHP script as my dummy application to generate the OAuth token.

This script utilises Google APIs Client Library for PHP. You’ll need to download and install it a directory that can be read using the below script.

<?php

// Call set_include_path() as needed to point to your client library.
set_include_path($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/directory/to/google/api/');
require_once 'Google/Client.php';
require_once 'Google/Service/YouTube.php';
session_start();

/*
 * You can acquire an OAuth 2.0 client ID and client secret from the
 * {{ Google Cloud Console }} <{{ https://cloud.google.com/console }}>
 * For more information about using OAuth 2.0 to access Google APIs, please see:
 * <https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/guides/authentication>
 * Please ensure that you have enabled the YouTube Data API for your project.
 */
$OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID = 'XXXXXXX.apps.googleusercontent.com';
$OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET = 'XXXXXXXXXX';
$REDIRECT = 'http://localhost/oauth2callback.php';
$APPNAME = "XXXXXXXXX";


$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setClientId($OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID);
$client->setClientSecret($OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET);
$client->setScopes('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube');
$client->setRedirectUri($REDIRECT);
$client->setApplicationName($APPNAME);
$client->setAccessType('offline');


// Define an object that will be used to make all API requests.
$youtube = new Google_Service_YouTube($client);

if (isset($_GET['code'])) {
    if (strval($_SESSION['state']) !== strval($_GET['state'])) {
        die('The session state did not match.');
    }

    $client->authenticate($_GET['code']);
    $_SESSION['token'] = $client->getAccessToken();

}

if (isset($_SESSION['token'])) {
    $client->setAccessToken($_SESSION['token']);
    echo '<code>' . $_SESSION['token'] . '</code>';
}

// Check to ensure that the access token was successfully acquired.
if ($client->getAccessToken()) {
    try {
        // Call the channels.list method to retrieve information about the
        // currently authenticated user's channel.
        $channelsResponse = $youtube->channels->listChannels('contentDetails', array(
            'mine' => 'true',
        ));

        $htmlBody = '';
        foreach ($channelsResponse['items'] as $channel) {
            // Extract the unique playlist ID that identifies the list of videos
            // uploaded to the channel, and then call the playlistItems.list method
            // to retrieve that list.
            $uploadsListId = $channel['contentDetails']['relatedPlaylists']['uploads'];

            $playlistItemsResponse = $youtube->playlistItems->listPlaylistItems('snippet', array(
                'playlistId' => $uploadsListId,
                'maxResults' => 50
            ));

            $htmlBody .= "<h3>Videos in list $uploadsListId</h3><ul>";
            foreach ($playlistItemsResponse['items'] as $playlistItem) {
                $htmlBody .= sprintf('<li>%s (%s)</li>', $playlistItem['snippet']['title'],
                    $playlistItem['snippet']['resourceId']['videoId']);
            }
            $htmlBody .= '</ul>';
        }
    } catch (Google_ServiceException $e) {
        $htmlBody .= sprintf('<p>A service error occurred: <code>%s</code></p>',
            htmlspecialchars($e->getMessage()));
    } catch (Google_Exception $e) {
        $htmlBody .= sprintf('<p>An client error occurred: <code>%s</code></p>',
            htmlspecialchars($e->getMessage()));
    }

    $_SESSION['token'] = $client->getAccessToken();
} else {
    $state = mt_rand();
    $client->setState($state);
    $_SESSION['state'] = $state;

    $authUrl = $client->createAuthUrl();
    $htmlBody = <<<END
  <h3>Authorization Required</h3>
  <p>You need to <a href="$authUrl">authorise access</a> before proceeding.<p>
END;
}
?>

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>My Uploads</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php echo $htmlBody?>
</body>
</html>

Once you’ve got the script above and the Google Client Library API in place, load the script in your browser. You should be prompted to Authorise access before you can continue. Once you click on this link you should be taken through the steps to authorise your currently logged in Google account to access your new application.

Once it’s all done you should be redirected back to the localhost page, except now you will see a JSON string along the top of the page. Save this string somewhere for use later on. You might also notice if you’ve already uploaded videos to YouTube, a list of your videos on the page – just to confirm the access token works!

Saving your credentials

Now that you’ve received your refresh tokens create a text file called “the_key.txt” with the following information you’ve just received, it should look something similar to the format below:

{"access_token":"XXXXXXXXX","token_type":"Bearer", "expires_in":3600, "refresh_token":"XXXXXXX", "created":000000}

I suggest you write your refresh token down somewhere for safe keeping.

Creating the upload script

The script below is a very basic implementation. It requires the following file structure:

• Google/
• upload.php (the script below)
• the_key.txt (the file we created in the previous section)
• tutorial.mp4 (the video to upload)

The script will automatically update your “the_key.txt” file if your access_token is out of date.

Set the include path to ensure the Google API works correctly (line 3).

Replace the following variables with your own information:

• $application_name
• $client_secrect
• $client_id
• $videoPath
• $videoTitle
• $videoDescription
• $videoCategory
• $videoTags

$key = file_get_contents('the_key.txt');

set_include_path($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/path-to-your-director/');
require_once 'Google/Client.php';
require_once 'Google/Service/YouTube.php';

$application_name = 'XXXXXX'; 
$client_secret = 'XXXXXXX';
$client_id = 'XXXXXXX.apps.googleusercontent.com';
$scope = array('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload', 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube', 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtubepartner');
		
$videoPath = "tutorial.mp4";
$videoTitle = "A tutorial video";
$videoDescription = "A video tutorial on how to upload to YouTube";
$videoCategory = "22";
$videoTags = array("youtube", "tutorial");


try{
	// Client init
	$client = new Google_Client();
	$client->setApplicationName($application_name);
	$client->setClientId($client_id);
	$client->setAccessType('offline');
	$client->setAccessToken($key);
	$client->setScopes($scope);
	$client->setClientSecret($client_secret);

	if ($client->getAccessToken()) {

		/**
		 * Check to see if our access token has expired. If so, get a new one and save it to file for future use.
		 */
		if($client->isAccessTokenExpired()) {
			$newToken = json_decode($client->getAccessToken());
			$client->refreshToken($newToken->refresh_token);
			file_put_contents('the_key.txt', $client->getAccessToken());
		}

		$youtube = new Google_Service_YouTube($client);



		// Create a snipet with title, description, tags and category id
		$snippet = new Google_Service_YouTube_VideoSnippet();
		$snippet->setTitle($videoTitle);
		$snippet->setDescription($videoDescription);
		$snippet->setCategoryId($videoCategory);
		$snippet->setTags($videoTags);

		// Create a video status with privacy status. Options are "public", "private" and "unlisted".
		$status = new Google_Service_YouTube_VideoStatus();
		$status->setPrivacyStatus('private');

		// Create a YouTube video with snippet and status
		$video = new Google_Service_YouTube_Video();
		$video->setSnippet($snippet);
		$video->setStatus($status);

		// Size of each chunk of data in bytes. Setting it higher leads faster upload (less chunks,
		// for reliable connections). Setting it lower leads better recovery (fine-grained chunks)
		$chunkSizeBytes = 1 * 1024 * 1024;

		// Setting the defer flag to true tells the client to return a request which can be called
		// with ->execute(); instead of making the API call immediately.
		$client->setDefer(true);

		// Create a request for the API's videos.insert method to create and upload the video.
		$insertRequest = $youtube->videos->insert("status,snippet", $video);

		// Create a MediaFileUpload object for resumable uploads.
		$media = new Google_Http_MediaFileUpload(
			$client,
			$insertRequest,
			'video/*',
			null,
			true,
			$chunkSizeBytes
		);
		$media->setFileSize(filesize($videoPath));


		// Read the media file and upload it chunk by chunk.
		$status = false;
		$handle = fopen($videoPath, "rb");
		while (!$status && !feof($handle)) {
			$chunk = fread($handle, $chunkSizeBytes);
			$status = $media->nextChunk($chunk);
		}

		fclose($handle);

		/**
		 * Video has successfully been upload, now lets perform some cleanup functions for this video
		 */
		if ($status->status['uploadStatus'] == 'uploaded') {
			// Actions to perform for a successful upload
			// $uploaded_video_id = $status['id'];
		}

		// If you want to make other calls after the file upload, set setDefer back to false
		$client->setDefer(true);

	} else{
		// @TODO Log error
		echo 'Problems creating the client';
	}

} catch(Google_Service_Exception $e) {
	print "Caught Google service Exception ".$e->getCode(). " message is ".$e->getMessage();
	print "Stack trace is ".$e->getTraceAsString();
}catch (Exception $e) {
	print "Caught Google service Exception ".$e->getCode(). " message is ".$e->getMessage();
	print "Stack trace is ".$e->getTraceAsString();
}

Suggestions

As you can see, the script is very primitive, among other things, this script should not be located in a publicly accessible directory due to the obvious abuse that could occur. In my situation, I created a queue of files to upload and setup a cron to execute the script once an hour that would then check a directory for any files of a certain type (mp4) and then loop through and upload to YouTube. The method I described hasn’t been tested on files more than 10 x 400mb in size so I’m not sure what the impacts would be on your server for more files / larger sizes etc.

Hopefully that’s enough to get your started, if you have any questions feel free to ask :)