ytAnalyticsR

The API wrapper library is used for the YouTube Analytics and Reporting APIs.

R Client for the YouTube Analytics and Reporting APIs

Query the YouTube Analytics API to retrieve targeted, real-time queries and power custom reports in response to user interactions, or retrieve and store bulk reports using the YouTube Reporting API for further processing using the big data tools you are most familiar with.

Install the development version of the package from Git Repo

The library can be installed using devtools::install_git().

This may require setting up a SSH keypair to authenticate with the Git repository host. In this case, git2r::cred_ssh_key() can be used to securely provide the SSH key files to devtools.

# Install devtools from CRAN
install.packages("devtools")
install.packages("git2r")

# If the repository is set to private or internal access only, you will need
# to setup a SSH key in order to authenticate with GitLab.
# If the repository is set to allow public access, then this step can be skipped.
creds <- git2r::cred_ssh_key(publickey="<path_to_public_key.pub>",
                         privatekey="<path_to_private_key>")

devtools::install_git(
  url="[email protected]:wok1/ytanalyticsr.git",
  quiet=FALSE,
  credentials=creds
)

Package Configuration Process

To allow the ytAnalyticsR package to authenticate users using OAuth, there are five set-up steps required:

1. Create a new Google Console project or select an existing one.
2. Enable the YouTube Analytics and Reporting APIs
3. Create and configure a new OAuth application for the project.
4. Add the OAuth application client_id and client_secret to the package options.
5. Authenticate a user using the yt_auth() function.

1. Create a Google developer console project

To enable access to the YouTube Analytics and Reporting APIs, you must first create a project in the Google developer console. The Google developer console is used to manage access to all Google APIs, as well as provide information as to how that API access is being used.

Google console documentation: Creating a new project

1. Navigate to the Google Cloud Console
2. At the top-left, click "Menu" -> "IAM & Admin" -> "Create a Project"
3. Enter a project name, select an organization and location, and click "Create"

2. Enable the YouTube Analytics and Reporting APIs

Enabling an API will associate it with the current project, add monitoring, and enable billing for that API if billing is enabled and required.

Google documentation: Enable and Disable APIs

1. Navigate to the Google Cloud Console
2. Select a project or create a new project
3. Open the APIs & Services page then select "Library"
4. Select the YouTube Analytics API and click "Enable". Repeat for the YouTube Reporting API

3. Create and configure an OAuth Application

1. Navigate to the Google Cloud Console
2. Select a project or create a new project
3. Open the APIs & Services page then select "Credentials"
4. Click the "+ Create Credentials" link at the top of the page and select "OAuth Client ID"

4. Configure the R package

To connect to the OAuth application created in the Google Console, you must set the googleAuthR options for the client ID and client secret. You must also specify the required authorization scopes which the application will use to access the YouTube APIs.

library(ytAnalyticsR)

options(googleAuthR.client_id = "<CLIENT_ID>")
options(googleAuthR.client_secret = "<CLIENT_SECRET>")

scopes <- c("https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube",
             "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly",
             "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics-monetary.readonly",
             "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics.readonly")
options(googleAuthR.scopes.selected = scopes)

5. Authenticate with the API using OAuth 2.0

The OAuth authentication process requires an interactive environment and the authentication token will expire after 24 hours.

1. In the R console, enter ytAnalyticsR::yt_auth() and press "Enter"
2. A browser window should appear and prompt you to log in with your Google Account
3. Log in
4. You will then be asked to allow the OAuth application to access your YouTube data. Accept this prompt.
5. You will then be redirected to a success page and notified that you can close this window.
6. Return to the R console and you should see a confirmation message that the authentication was successful

6. Confirm the setup worked and make a test call

Test that everything is working correctly by fetching the metrics for a given video id.

df <- video.query("YouTube_Video_ID",
                 startDate = '2022-04-01',
                 endDate = '2022-04-30',
                 metrics = 'views,likes,dislikes',
                 dimensions = 'day',
                 sort = 'day',
                 ids = "channel)