Dealing with the Youtube GData API

Using SimpleXML we will parse the Youtube feed to show today’s top videos.

The feed link is:

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated?time=today&start-index=1&max-results=5

it contains today’ s top 5 videos. If you want to know more about the Youtube Gdata Api you can start by reading the API Reference Guide.

This is the feed structure:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:yt='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007' gd:etag='W/"DkYDQH47eCp7ImA9WxBREko."'>
  <id>tag:youtube.com,2008:standardfeed:us:top_rated</id>
  <updated>2009-12-31T07:42:51.000-08:00</updated>
  <category scheme='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind' term='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video'/>
  <title>Top Rated</title>
  <logo>http://www.youtube.com/img/pic_youtubelogo_123x63.gif</logo>
  <link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=tr'/>
  <link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated?client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
  <link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#batch' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/us/top_rated/batch?client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
  <link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated?start-index=2&max-results=1&time=today&client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
  <link rel='service' type='application/atomsvc+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/us/top_rated?alt=atom-service'/>
  <link rel='previous' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated?start-index=1&max-results=1&time=today&client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
  <link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated?start-index=3&max-results=1&time=today&client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
  <author>
    <name>YouTube</name>
    <uri>http://www.youtube.com/</uri>
  </author>
  <generator version='2.0' uri='http://gdata.youtube.com/'>YouTube data API</generator>
  <openSearch:totalResults>100</openSearch:totalResults>
  <openSearch:startIndex>2</openSearch:startIndex>
  <openSearch:itemsPerPage>1</openSearch:itemsPerPage>
  <entry gd:etag='W/"D0UERX47eCp7ImA9WxBREko."'>
    <id>tag:youtube.com,2008:video:9DTWIYIgkrk</id>
    <published>2009-12-30T22:36:23.000Z</published>
    <updated>2009-12-31T16:00:04.000Z</updated>
    <category scheme='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind' term='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/categories.cat' term='Entertainment' label='Entertainment'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='shaycarl'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='shaytards'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='costco'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='love'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='the'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='smell'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='of'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='new'/>
    <category scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/keywords.cat' term='balls'/>
    <title>RACING THROUGH  COSTCO!  (12/29/09-300th!!!)</title>
    <content type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://www.youtube.com/v/9DTWIYIgkrk?f=standard&c=ytapi-google-jsdemo&app=youtube_gdata'/>
    <link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DTWIYIgkrk&feature=youtube_gdata'/>
    <link rel='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video.responses' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/9DTWIYIgkrk/responses?client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
    <link rel='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video.related' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/9DTWIYIgkrk/related?client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
    <link rel='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#mobile' type='text/html' href='http://m.youtube.com/details?v=9DTWIYIgkrk'/>
    <link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/us/top_rated/v/9DTWIYIgkrk?client=ytapi-google-jsdemo'/>
    <author>
      <name>SHAYTARDS</name>
      <uri>http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/shaytards</uri>
    </author>
    <gd:comments>
      <gd:feedLink href='http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/9DTWIYIgkrk/comments?client=ytapi-google-jsdemo' countHint='2837'/>
    </gd:comments>
    <media:group>
      <media:category label='Entertainment' scheme='http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007/categories.cat'>Entertainment</media:category>
      <media:content url='http://www.youtube.com/v/9DTWIYIgkrk?f=standard&c=ytapi-google-jsdemo&app=youtube_gdata' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' medium='video' isDefault='true' expression='full' duration='731' yt:format='5'/>
      <media:content url='rtsp://v5.cache3.c.youtube.com/CjkLENy73wIaMAm5kiCCIdY09BMYDSANFEITeXRhcGktZ29vZ2xlLWpzZGVtb0gGUghzdGFuZGFyZAw=/0/0/0/video.3gp' type='video/3gpp' medium='video' expression='full' duration='731' yt:format='1'/>
      <media:content url='rtsp://v7.cache4.c.youtube.com/CjkLENy73wIaMAm5kiCCIdY09BMYESARFEITeXRhcGktZ29vZ2xlLWpzZGVtb0gGUghzdGFuZGFyZAw=/0/0/0/video.3gp' type='video/3gpp' medium='video' expression='full' duration='731' yt:format='6'/>
      <media:credit role='uploader' scheme='urn:youtube' yt:type='partner'>SHAYTARDS</media:credit>
      <media:description type='plain'>My Twitter http://www.twitter.com/shaycarl

My Dailybooth http://www.dailybooth.com/shaycarl</media:description>
      <media:keywords>shaycarl, shaytards, costco, love, the, smell, of, new, balls</media:keywords>
      <media:player url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DTWIYIgkrk&feature=youtube_gdata'/>
      <media:thumbnail url='http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9DTWIYIgkrk/default.jpg' height='90' width='120' time='00:06:05.500'/>
      <media:thumbnail url='http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9DTWIYIgkrk/2.jpg' height='90' width='120' time='00:06:05.500'/>
      <media:thumbnail url='http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9DTWIYIgkrk/1.jpg' height='90' width='120' time='00:03:02.750'/>
      <media:thumbnail url='http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9DTWIYIgkrk/3.jpg' height='90' width='120' time='00:09:08.250'/>
      <media:thumbnail url='http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9DTWIYIgkrk/hqdefault.jpg' height='360' width='480'/>
      <media:title type='plain'>  RACING THROUGH COSTCO!  (12/29/09-300th!!!)</media:title>
      <yt:aspectRatio>widescreen</yt:aspectRatio>
      <yt:duration seconds='731'/>
      <yt:uploaded>2009-12-30T22:36:23.000Z</yt:uploaded>
      <yt:videoid>9DTWIYIgkrk</yt:videoid>
    </media:group>
    <gd:rating average='4.973422' max='5' min='1' numRaters='13244' rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#overall'/>
    <yt:statistics favoriteCount='1805' viewCount='302'/>
  </entry>
</feed>

Now, I will load the xml file using simplexml_load_file:

$feed = "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated?start-index=1&max-results=1&time=today";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($xml);
echo '<pre>';

As you see I check the simplexml object structure using print_r($xml), this will help me to see how can I parse the xml response from youtube.
To get the informations for every video I will parse every node in the Youtube GData response, so the previous code becomes:

$feed = "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated?start-index=2&max-results=1&time=today";
// load xml
$xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
// parse every node <entry> to get the video information
foreach ($xml->entry as $video) {
	echo '<h2>'.$video->title.'</h2><br>'; // video title
	echo '<pre>'.$video->content.'</pre><br>'; // video content
	// media: namespace
    $media = $video->children('http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/');
	echo 'Tags: '.$media->group->keywords.'<br>'; // video tags
	echo 'Video url: '.$media->group->player->attributes()->url.'<br>'; // video url
	echo 'Uploaded by '.$video->author->name.'<br>'; // author name
	echo '<hr>';
}

$video->title – gets the video title from the node “title”
$video->children(‘http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/’) – gets the nodes in media: namespace
$media->group->keywords – gets the video tags from the   node
$media->group->player->attributes()->url – gets the video url from the node
This was only a simple example of using the incredible Youtube GData API, I hope you liked it.