YouTube Scraper API

A minimal Flask API that returns YouTube video links for a given topic. The API calls a helper function search_youtube (imported from youtube_search) to find trending/relevant videos and returns their URLs.

This repository contains:

• app.py — a small Flask app exposing a single POST endpoint: /youtube_trend_links

Note: app.py imports search_youtube from youtube_search. Ensure the youtube_search helper/module or dependency is present in the project or installed from the appropriate package.

Features

• Minimal, easy-to-run Flask API
• Query for a topic and receive a list of YouTube video links
• Optional limit parameter to control how many links are returned (default: 5)

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Flask
• The module that provides search_youtube (this repository expects a module called youtube_search that exposes search_youtube(topic, limit)). Install from the project's requirements if present.

Recommended:

• Use a virtual environment (venv / virtualenv / conda)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Subho4531/Youtube_Scraper_api.git
   cd Youtube_Scraper_api
   

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   • Linux / macOS:

     python3 -m venv .venv
     source .venv/bin/activate
     

   • Windows (PowerShell):

     python -m venv .venv
     .\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
     

3. Install dependencies:

   • If a requirements.txt exists:

     pip install -r requirements.txt
     

   • If not, at minimum install Flask and the youtube search dependency you use:

     pip install flask
     # and install the package that provides youtube_search (if using a PyPI package)
     # e.g. pip install youtube-search-python
     

   • If youtube_search is a local module (a file youtube_search.py), no separate install is needed.

Running the API (development)

Start the Flask app:

python app.py

By default it listens on 0.0.0.0:5000 (debug mode enabled in app.py).

API

POST /youtube_trend_links

Query parameters:

• topic (required) — the search topic or query string to find relevant YouTube videos
• limit (optional) — integer number of videos to return (default: 5)

Notes:

• app.py reads parameters from the query string (request.args), not the JSON body.
• Example endpoint: http://localhost:5000/youtube_trend_links?topic=cats&limit=3

Responses:

• 200 OK

  {
    "topic": "cats",
    "videos": [
      "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123",
      "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=def456",
      "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghi789"
    ]
  }
  

• 400 Bad Request

  {
    "error": "Please provide a topic"
  }
  

• 404 Not Found (when no videos returned)

  {
    "error": "No videos found"
  }
  

Example using curl:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:5000/youtube_trend_links?topic=python+tutorials&limit=4"

Example using Python requests:

import requests

resp = requests.post("http://localhost:5000/youtube_trend_links", params={"topic": "python tutorials", "limit": 3})
print(resp.status_code)
print(resp.json())

Implementation Notes

• app.py expects a function named search_youtube(topic, limit) that returns an iterable (list) of video objects/dicts where each dictionary contains at least a 'link' key. Example:

  [
    {"title": "Video 1", "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..."},
    {"title": "Video 2", "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..."},
    ...
  ]
  

• If you are using a third-party package for searching YouTube, verify its function signature and adapt or provide a thin wrapper module named youtube_search that exposes search_youtube.

Testing & Troubleshooting

• If you get ImportError: No module named youtube_search, either:
  • Install the correct third-party package that provides youtube_search, or
  • Add a local module youtube_search.py that implements search_youtube.
• If YouTube search calls require API keys (e.g., using the official YouTube Data API), make sure to provide credentials and update youtube_search accordingly.

Suggested Improvements

• Add request validation and better error handling.
• Support reading topic from JSON body for POST requests.
• Add unit tests for the Flask endpoint and the search helper.
• Add rate limiting and caching for repeated queries.
• Provide Dockerfile and/or a requirements.txt for easier deployment.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or a pull request describing your changes.

License

Specify a license (e.g., MIT) in a LICENSE file if you want this project to be open source.