5 Best YouTube Libraries for PHP

If you’re a web developer, there’s a good chance that you’ve had to work with YouTube at some point. And if you’ve had to work with YouTube, you know that it can be a bit of a pain. Thankfully, there are a few PHP libraries out there that can make working with YouTube a bit easier. Here are 5 of the best.

php-youtube-api

The PHP Youtube API is a wrapper for the YouTube Data API. It is a great way to access the YouTube Data API v3 from within PHP. It is easy to use and allows you to fetch public data from YouTube with ease.

The only 3rd party dependency you will need is PHPUnit. With this library, you can easily get information on videos, channels, and playlists from YouTube. The best part about this library is that it requires no OAuth authentication, so you can get started right away!

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$youtube = new Madcoda\Youtube\Youtube(array('key' => '* Your API key here *'));
$video = $youtube->getVideoInfo('rie-hPVJ7Sw');

youtube-dl PHP

youtube-dl is a command-line program that can be used to download videos from YouTube and a few other sites. It’s open source, cross-platform, and supports both standard and high-definition videos.

youtube-dl PHP is a PHP wrapper for youtube-dl. 

declare(strict_types=1);

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use YoutubeDl\Options;
use YoutubeDl\YoutubeDl;

$yt = new YoutubeDl();

$collection = $yt->download(
    Options::create()
        ->downloadPath('/path/to/downloads')
        ->url('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDAw7vW7H0c')
);

foreach ($collection->getVideos() as $video) {
    if ($video->getError() !== null) {
        echo "Error downloading video: {$video->getError()}.";
    } else {
        echo $video->getTitle(); // Will return Phonebloks
        // $video->getFile(); // \SplFileInfo instance of downloaded file
    }
}

Youtube

The Youtube package is a Laravel PHP Facade for the Youtube Data API v3.Requirements: PHP 7.0 or higher and Laravel 5.1 or higher. An API key from Google Console is also required. With this key, you can access the Youtube API and get information on videos, channels, and playlists. The data that you get back can be used in your own applications or websites. This package makes it easy to work with the Youtube API in Laravel.

// use Alaouy\Youtube\Facades\Youtube;

// Return an STD PHP object
$video = Youtube::getVideoInfo('rie-hPVJ7Sw');

// Get multiple videos info from an array
$videoList = Youtube::getVideoInfo(['rie-hPVJ7Sw','iKHTawgyKWQ']);

// Get localized video info
$video = Youtube::getLocalizedVideoInfo('vjF9GgrY9c0', 'pl');

// Get multiple videos related to a video
$relatedVideos = Youtube::getRelatedVideos('iKHTawgyKWQ');

// Get comment threads by videoId
$commentThreads = Youtube::getCommentThreadsByVideoId('zwiUB_Lh3iA');

// Get popular videos in a country, return an array of PHP objects
$videoList = Youtube::getPopularVideos('us');

// Search playlists, channels and videos. return an array of PHP objects
$results = Youtube::search('Android');

SonataMediaBundle

The SonataMediaBundle is a media library that is based on a dedicated provider. This provider is responsible for handling different types of media, such as files, videos, and images. Each type of media is managed by a provider service.

This service is responsible for tasks such as retrieving media metadata, generating media thumbnails, tweaking the edit form, and rendering the media. By using this bundle, you can easily manage all of your media in one place. This can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

$media = new Media();
$media->setBinaryContent('13142153');
$media->setContext('user');
$media->setProviderName('sonata.media.provider.youtube');

$mediaManager->save($media);

Embera

If you’ve ever wanted to embed a video or other media on your website, you know the pain of trying to figure out the right code. It’s time-consuming and frustrating, especially if you’re not a web developer. Embera is here to help.

Embera is an Oembed consumer library that makes it easy to embed media from over 150 sites, including YouTube, Twitter, Livestream, Dailymotion, and Instagram. With Embera, all you need is the URL of the media you want to embed. Embera will take care of the rest, generating the code for you automatically. And Embera doesn’t just stop at videos.

It can also generate code for images, audio files, and more. Plus, Embera has advanced features like offline support, responsive embeds, and caching support.

use Embera\Embera;

$embera = new Embera();
echo $embera->autoEmbed('Hi! Have you seen this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ Its the best!');