yt-videos-list 0.4.3

Python package to extract YouTube video titles and corresponding URLs for a specific channel and write the information to CSV and txt files with sections to mark a particular video as watched, to mark a video for rewatching, and for taking notes.

python3.6+ Quick Start

Python 3.6+ setup (required if not already installed)

This package uses f-strings (more here) and as such requires Python 3.6+.

If you have an older version of Python, you can download Python 3.8.2 (follow links below) and follow the instructions to set up Python for your machine. If you want to install a different version, visit the Python Downloads page and select the version you want.

• macOS 64-bit installer
• Windows x86-64 executable installer
• Windows x86 executable installer
• Gzipped source tarball (most useful for Linux)

Permissions for first run

This is required to make sure you can download and install the required Selenium binary dependencies

On Windows: makes sure you "Run as Administrator"

• shortcut: ⊞ Win + X + A

On Unix based machines (MacOS, Linux): make sure you have read and write access to /usr/local/bin/

• if you're not sure, open terminal and run sudo chown $USER /usr/local/bin/

After you install Python 3.6+ and ensure you have the required permissions (if either is needed), enter the following in your command line:

# if something isn't working properly, try rerunning this
# the problem may have been fixed with a newer version

pip3 install -U yt-videos-list     # MacOS/Linux
pip install -U yt-videos-list      # Windows

Running the package from the python interpreter

python3     # MacOS/Linux
python      # Windows

from yt_videos_list import ListCreator


my_driver = 'firefox' # SUBSTITUTE DRIVER YOU WANT (options below)
lc = ListCreator(driver=my_driver, scroll_pause_time=0.8)


lc.create_list_for(url='https://www.youtube.com/user/schafer5')
lc.create_list_for(url='https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8butISFwT-Wl7EV0hUK0BQ')


# see the new files that were just created:
import os
os.system('ls -lt | head')                      # MacOS/Linux
os.system('dir /O-D | find "_videos_list"')     # Windows

# for more information on using the module:
help(lc)

• driver options include:
  • 'firefox'
  • 'opera'
  • 'safari' (MacOS only)
  • 'chrome'
  • 'brave'
  • 'edge' (Windows only!)
• increase scroll_pause_time for laggy internet and decrease scroll_pause_time for fast internet

If you already scraped a channel and the channel uploaded a new video, simply rerun this program on that channel and this package updates your files to include the newer video(s)!

More API information

---

NOTE that you can also access all the information below from the Python interpreter by entering

import yt_videos_list
help(yt_videos_list)

---

# options for the ListCreator object

ListCreator(csv=True, txt=True, reverse_chronological=True,
            headless=False, scroll_pause_time=0.8,
            driver='Firefox')

There are a number of optional arguments you can specify during the instantiation of the ListCreator object. The preceding arguments are run by default, but in case you want more flexibility, you can specify the:

• driver argument:
  • Firefox (default)
  • Opera
  • Safari
  • Chrome
  • Brave
  • Edge (Windows only)
    • driver='firefox'
    • driver='opera'
    • driver='safari'
    • driver='chrome'
    • driver='brave'
    • driver='edge'
• csv, txt, md file type argument:
  • True (default) - create a file for the specified type
  • False - do not create a file for the specified type.
    • txt=True (default) OR txt=False
    • csv=True (default) OR csv=False
    • md=True (default) OR md=False
• reverse_chronological argument:
  • True (default) - write the files in order from most recent video to the oldest video
  • False - write the files in order from oldest video to the most recent video
    • reverse_chronological=True (default) OR reverse_chronological=False
• headless argument:
  • False (default) - run the driver with an open Selenium instance for viewing
  • True - run the driver in "invisible" mode.
    • headless=False (default) OR headless=True
• scroll_pause_time argument:
  • any float values greater than 0 (default 0.8).
    • The value you provide will be how long the program waits before trying to scroll the videos list page down for the channel you want to scrape. For fast internet connections, you may want to reduce the value, and for slow connections you may want to increase the value.
  • scroll_pause_time=0.8 (default)
  • CAUTION: reducing this value too much will result in the program not capturing all the videos, so be careful! Experiment :)

Usage Statistics

• PePy
• PyPi Stats

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