NAME
StreamFinder::Youtube - Fetch actual raw streamable URLs from YouTube and others.
AUTHOR
This module is Copyright (C) 2017-2021 by
Jim Turner, <turnerjw784 at yahoo.com>
Email: turnerjw784@yahoo.com
All rights reserved.
You may distribute this module under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file.
SYNOPSIS
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use StreamFinder::Youtube;
die "..usage: $0 ID|URL\n" unless ($ARGV[0]);
my $video = new StreamFinder::Youtube($ARGV[0]);
die "Invalid URL or no streams found!\n" unless ($video);
my $firstStream = $video->get();
print "First Stream URL=$firstStream\n";
my $url = $video->getURL();
print "Stream URL=$url\n";
my $videoTitle = $video->getTitle();
print "Title=$videoTitle\n";
my $videoDescription = $video->getTitle('desc');
print "Description=$videoDescription\n";
my $videoID = $video->getID();
print "Video ID=$videoID\n";
my $artist = $video->{'artist'};
print "Artist (channel)=$artist\n" if ($artist);
my $albumartist = $video->{'albumartist'};
print "Album Artist (Channel URL)=$albumartist\n" if ($albumartist);
my $icon_url = $video->getIconURL();
if ($icon_url) { #SAVE THE ICON TO A TEMP. FILE:
my ($image_ext, $icon_image) = $video->getIconData();
if ($icon_image && open IMGOUT, ">/tmp/${videoID}.$image_ext") {
binmode IMGOUT;
print IMGOUT $icon_image;
close IMGOUT;
}
}
my $stream_count = $video->count();
print "--Stream count=$stream_count=\n";
my @streams = $video->get();
foreach my $s (@streams) {
print "------ stream URL=$s=\n";
}DESCRIPTION
StreamFinder::Youtube accepts a valid full YouTube video ID, or page URL on youtube, et. al. that the "yt-dlp" program supports, and returns the actual stream URL, title, and cover art icon for that video. The purpose is that one needs this URL in order to have the option to stream the video in one's own choice of media player software rather than using their web browser and accepting any / all flash, ads, javascript, cookies, trackers, web-bugs, and other crapware that can come with that method of play. The author uses his own custom all-purpose media player called "fauxdacious" (his custom hacked version of the open-source "audacious" audio player). "fauxdacious" incorporates this module to decode and play youtube.com videos. This is a submodule of the general StreamFinder module.
NOTE: This module may return either Youtube or non-Youtube videos and streams for non-Youtube sites, including videos embedded in IFRAME tags and even Rumble.com videos found in some non-Youtube sites (StreamFinder::Rumble required). See the -noiframes and -youtubeonly flags below for limiting this feature. Also note: these videos, etc. are handled here and not by StreamFinder::Anystream.
NOTE: Streamfinder now strongly recommends using yt-dlp over youtube-dl for extracting streams, and it is now the default app. used.
Depends:
URI::Escape, HTML::Entities, LWP::UserAgent, and the separate application program: yt-dlp, or a compatable program such as youtube-dl.
SUBROUTINES/METHODS
- new(ID|url [, -debug [ => 0|1|2 ]] [, -secure [ => 0|1 ]] [, -fast [ => 0|1 ]] [, -format => "youtube-dl format specification" ] [, -format-fallback => "youtube-dl format specification (2nd try)" ] [, -formatonly [ => 0|1 ]] [, -noiframes [ => 0|1 ]] [, -youtubeonly [ => 0|1 ]] [, -user-agent => "user-agent string"] [, -userid => "youtube-user-id", -userpw => "password"] [, -youtube-dl => "youtube-dl program"] [, -youtube-dl-args => "youtube-dl arguments"] [, -youtube-dl-add-args => "youtube-dl additional arguments"])
-
Accepts a youtube.com video ID, or any full URL that yt-dlp (youtube-dl) supports and creates and returns a new video object, or undef if the URL is not a youtube-supported video URL or no streams are found. The URL can be the full URL, ie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=video-id, a user or channel URL, ie. https://www.youtube.com/channel/channel-id or https://www.youtube.com/user/user-id. or just video-id (if the site is www.youtube.com, since YouTube has multiple sites). If a channel-id, user-id, or a Youtube channel/user URL is given, then the first (latest) video uploaded to that channel will be returned. Note: Some users and channels have a "featured" video (shown with a larger thumbnail at the top) or multiple groupings of videos, but the "first" video returned will normally be from the "Uploads" group. Channels and users' urls must currently be specified as full URLs, as just specifying an ID will be interpreted as a specific video-id!
If -format is specified, it should be a valid "youtube-dl -f" format string (see the youtube-dl manpage for details). Examples: "mp4[height<=720]/best[height<=720]" which limits videos to 720p, or "bestaudio" to download only audio streams. Default is "best", but if no streams are found, it then tries all, unless -formatonly is specified.
If -format-fallback is specified, it should be a valid "youtube-dl -f" format string (see the yt-dlp manpage for details), and will be used if no streams matching the -format are found. Default is "bestaudio".
If -formatonly is specified (set to 1 (true)), then if no streams match the specified -format argument (default "best"), then if -format-fallback is specified, that will be tried, otherwise, no streams will be returned. Otherwise (if -formatonly is unspecified or false, yt-dlp is called again with either the -F -format-fallback (if specified) or else, no format (-f) argument (match any stream we can find). Default is 0 (false / unset).
If -formats_by_url is specified, it should be a valid hash-ref. of url patterns to match (keys) and valid "youtube-dl -f" format strings. This allows for overriding the -format option for URLs (ie. certain non-Youtube ones that provide different formats), particularly useful when -formatonly is also specified.
If -fast is specified (set to 1 (true)), a separate probe of the page to fetch the video's title and artist is skipped. This is useful if you know the video is NOT a YouTube video or you don't care about the artist (youtube channel's owner), artist icon, fields, etc. Default is 0 (false / unset).
If -noiframes is specified (set to 1 (true)), then only process actual video URLs, not search the page for an iframe containing a video URL (a new feature with v0.47). This is used primarily internally to prevent possible recursion when StreamFinder::YouTube finds an iframe containing a potential video stream URL and creates a new StreamFinder object to find any streams in that URL (which can then call StreamFinder::Youtube again on that URL to find the stream). Default is 0 (false / unset) - search for StreamFinder-searchable URLs in an iframe, if the page is HTML and not an actual video URL.
-youtubeonly - Some non-Youtube pages have embedded Rumble (Rumble.com) videos embedded in them and since StreamFinder::Youtube is somewhat of a "catchall" (for videos), and we (the Author) prefer the less-woke Rumble to Youtube (which has major censorship issues), we search for embedded Rumble videos here, as opposed to StreamFinder::Rumble or StreamFinder::AnyStream, and, upon finding one, we return that rather than continuing the search for Youtube videos. To NOT do this (consider only embedded Youtube videos), specify this / set it to 1 (true). Default 0 (false) - accept Rumble (or other non-Youtube) videos, if found first. NOTE: This option is effectively set (true) if -noiframes is set!
The optional -secure argument can be either 0 or 1 (false or true). If 1 then only secure ("https://") streams will be returned. Default for -secure is 0 (false) - return all streams (http and https).
The optional -user-agent argument can specify a specific user-agent string to send to yt-dlp's optional "--user-agent" argument. NOTE: This is completely separate from the -agent option used by some other StreamFinder modules for fetching pages and streams from their respective sites, as that argument is used by LWP::UserAgent (along with some other options), and is NOT passed to yt-dlp, though they represent the same kind of user-agent string! Default is -none- (yt-dlp or the alternate program may use it's own default).
The optional -userid and -userpw arguments allow specifying a Youtube login (for fetching videos, ie. paid ones that require one). Defaults are -none- (no userid or password specified).
The optional -youtube-dl argument allows specifying an alternate stream- parser program in lieu of "yt-dlp", such as "youtube-dl" (Default: "yt-dlp"). Note: StreamFinder recommends sticking with yt-dlp, as it has been known to work when youtube-dl fails, and is known for quicker fixing of issues, as Youtube continues to throw up additional roadblocks to alternate viewing methods. If the program is not in the user's executable PATH, the full path can be included with the program name here.
The optional -youtube-dl-args argument allows you to change the arguments to be passed to the external yt-dlp (youtube-dl or , etc.) program. NOTE: Unless this program changes it's valid arguments or you select an alternate program that requires slightly different arguments, you should NOT use this argument, as the DEFAULT is: "--get-url --get-format --get-thumbnail --get-title --get-description --get-id", which are the currently required arguments for this module to function properly! Instead, if you wish to include additional arguments, you should use the -youtube-dl-add-args option to append them to this required list, see below: Also note that the -f format argument should NOT be specified either here or below as the -format option provides this argument!
The optional -youtube-dl-add-args argument allows you to add additional arguments to be passed to the external yt-dlp (youtube-dl or , etc.) program. See both the -youtube-dl-args argument description and the manpage for yt-dlp, youtube-dl or whatever alternative external program you use to extract video streams for valid arguments for possible inclusion here.
DEFAULT -none- (no additional arguments).
The optional -youtube-site argument allows specifying a different default Youtube site if only an video-ID is provided or an embedded video in an iframe doesn't specify a specific Youtube site.
DEFAULT "https://www.youtube.com".
Additional (general StreamFinder) options:
-log => "logfile"
Specify path to a log file. If a valid and writable file is specified, A line will be appended to this file every time one or more streams is successfully fetched for a url.
DEFAULT -none- (no logging).
-logfmt specifies a format string for lines written to the log file.
DEFAULT "[time] [url] - [site]: [title] ([total])".
The valid field [variables] are: [stream]: The url of the first/best stream found. [site]: The site name (Youtube - OR the site name of the embedded URL in the first iframe, if found - see -noiframes option above to prevent this feature). [url]: The url searched for streams. [time]: Perl timestamp when the line was logged. [title], [artist], [album], [description], [year], [genre], [total], [albumartist]: The corresponding field data returned (or "-na-", if no value).
- $video->get()
-
Returns an array of strings representing all stream URLs found.
- $video->getURL([options])
-
Similar to get() except it only returns a single stream representing the first valid stream found.
Current options are: "random", "nopls", and "noplaylists". By default, the first ("best"?) stream is returned. If "random" is specified, then a random one is selected from the list of streams found. If "nopls" is specified, and the stream to be returned is a ".pls" playlist, it is first fetched and the first entry (or a random entry if "random" is specified) is returned. This is needed by Fauxdacious Mediaplayer. If "noplaylists" is specified, and the stream to be returned is a "playlist" (either .pls or .m3u? extension), it is first fetched and the first entry (or a random entry if "random" is specified) in the playlist is returned.
- $video->count()
-
Returns the number of streams found for the video.
- $video->getID()
-
Returns the video's YouTube ID (alphanumeric+some special characters).
- $video->getTitle(['desc'])
-
Returns the station's title, or (long description).
- $video->getIconURL(['artist'])
-
Returns the URL for the video's "cover art" icon image, if any. If 'artist' is specified, the channel artist's icon url is returned, if any. NOTE: The 'artist' option will return an empty string if the -fast option is used.
- $video->getIconData(['artist'])
-
Returns a two-element array consisting of the extension (ie. "png", "gif", "jpeg", etc.) and the actual icon image (binary data), if any. If 'artist' is specified, the channel artist's icon data is returned, if any. NOTE: The 'artist' option will return an empty string if the -fast option is used.
- $video->getImageURL()
-
Returns the URL for the video's "cover art" banner image, which for YouTube videos is always the icon image, as YouTube does not support a separate banner image at this time.
- $video->getImageData()
-
Returns a two-element array consisting of the extension (ie. "png", "gif", "jpeg", etc.) and the actual video's banner image (binary data).
- $video->getType()
-
Returns the video's type ("Youtube").
CONFIGURATION FILES
The default root location directory for StreamFinder configuration files is "~/.config/StreamFinder". To use an alternate location directory, specify it in the "STREAMFINDER" environment variable, ie.: $ENV{STREAMFINDER} = "/etc/StreamFinder".
- ~/.config/StreamFinder/Youtube/config
-
Optional text file for specifying various configuration options for a specific site (submodule). Each option is specified on a separate line in the format below: NOTE: Do not follow the lines with a semicolon, comma, or any other separator. Non-numeric values should be surrounded with quotes, either single or double. Blank lines and lines beginning with a "#" sign as their first non-blank character are ignored as comments.
'option' => 'value' [,]
and the options are loaded into a hash used only by the specific (submodule) specified. Valid options include -debug => [0|1|2] and most of the LWP::UserAgent options.
Options specified here override any specified in ~/.config/StreamFinder/config.
- ~/.config/StreamFinder/config
-
Optional text file for specifying various configuration options. Each option is specified on a separate line in the format below:
'option' => 'value' [,]
and the options are loaded into a hash used by all sites (submodules) that support them. Valid options include -debug => [0|1|2] and most of the LWP::UserAgent options.
NOTE: Options specified in the options parameter list of the new() function will override those corresponding options specified in these files.
KEYWORDS
youtube
DEPENDENCIES
yt-dlp (or youtube-dl, or other compatable program)
URI::Escape, HTML::Entities, LWP::UserAgent, youtube-dl
RECCOMENDS
yt-dlp, wget
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-streamFinder-youtube at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=StreamFinder-Youtube. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
SUPPORT
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc StreamFinder::YoutubeYou can also look for information at:
RT: CPAN's request tracker (report bugs here)
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=StreamFinder-Youtube
AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
CPAN Ratings
Search CPAN
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2017-2021 Jim Turner.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the the Artistic License (2.0). You may obtain a copy of the full license at:
http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_license_2_0
Any use, modification, and distribution of the Standard or Modified Versions is governed by this Artistic License. By using, modifying or distributing the Package, you accept this license. Do not use, modify, or distribute the Package, if you do not accept this license.
If your Modified Version has been derived from a Modified Version made by someone other than you, you are nevertheless required to ensure that your Modified Version complies with the requirements of this license.
This license does not grant you the right to use any trademark, service mark, tradename, or logo of the Copyright Holder.
This license includes the non-exclusive, worldwide, free-of-charge patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import and otherwise transfer the Package with respect to any patent claims licensable by the Copyright Holder that are necessarily infringed by the Package. If you institute patent litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim) against any party alleging that the Package constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then this Artistic License to you shall terminate on the date that such litigation is filed.
Disclaimer of Warranty: THE PACKAGE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES. THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT ARE DISCLAIMED TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY YOUR LOCAL LAW. UNLESS REQUIRED BY LAW, NO COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTOR WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THE PACKAGE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.