YoutubeExplodeDart: A Comprehensive Guide to Querying YouTube Metadata and Downloading Streams

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YoutubeExplodeDart: A Comprehensive Guide to Querying YouTube Metadata and Downloading Streams

YoutubeExplodeDart is a feature-rich library for querying metadata about YouTube videos, playlists, channels, and closed captions. It also enables users to download video streams and closed captions, providing an alternative to the official YouTube API.

Key Features

  • Retrieve metadata on videos, playlists, channels, streams, and closed captions
  • Execute search queries and obtain video, channel, and playlist results
  • Download video streams with varying quality levels
  • Extract closed captions
  • Access video comments

Installation and Usage

To use YoutubeExplodeDart, add it to your project's pubspec.yaml file:

youtube_explode_dart: ^1.10.4

Import the library into your Dart code:

import 'package:youtube_explode_dart/youtube_explode_dart.dart';

Getting Metadata of a Video

var yt = YoutubeExplode();
var video = yt.videos.get('https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dpp1sIL1m5Q');
var title = video.title;
var author = video.author;
var duration = video.duration;

Downloading a Video Stream

var manifest = yt.videos.streamsClient.getManifest('Dpp1sIL1m5Q');
var streamInfo = manifest.muxed.withHigestVideoQuality();
var stream = yt.video.streamClient.get(streamInfo);
var file = File(filePath);
var fileStream = file.openWrite();
await stream.pipe(fileStream);
await fileStream.flush();
await fileStream.close();

Working with Playlists

var playlist = await yt.playlists.get('xxxxx');
var title = playlist.title;
var author = playlist.author;
await for (var video in yt.playlists.getVideos(playlist.id)) {
  var videoTitle = video.title;
  var videoAuthor = video.author;
}

Extracting Closed Captions

var trackManifest = await yt.videos.closedCaptions.getManifest('_QdPW8JrYzQ')
var trackInfo = manifest.getByLanguage('en');
if (trackInfo != null) {
  var track = await youtube.videos.closedCaptions.get(trackInfo);
  var caption = track.getByTime(Duration(seconds: 61));
  var text = caption?.text;
}

Getting Comments

var comments = await yt.videos.commentsClient.getComments(video);
var replies = await yt.videos.commentsClient.getReplies(comment);

Cleanup

yt.close();

Additional Notes

  • YoutubeExplodeDart is not affiliated with YouTube or Google.
  • Downloading copyrighted content is prohibited.
  • The library is under active development, and new features are being added regularly.

Conclusion

YoutubeExplodeDart is a powerful tool for interacting with YouTube's content. It provides a comprehensive set of features for retrieving metadata, downloading streams, and extracting closed captions. By following the guidelines outlined in this guide, you can harness the library's capabilities to create compelling applications.

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