Retrieve YouTube channel videos by channel name - ios

Question

I am looking for two API calls in Youtube Data API V3.
First I want to get the Channel ID by specifying the name of the channel.
Once I have the Channel ID I want to get n number of videos from that channel.
I am looking for the API calls that I have to make.
Also, does anyone know if there's a chance that channel or video IDs may change at some point? If they can change for the same video/channel then I should not hardcode the ID's in my code.
Thanks

Answer 1

For total newbies who want a running example : consider a function that will help understand the entire cycle of fetch,parse,display etc and bring youtube channel's videos to your tableview specifically. im not writing the tableview part here
-(void)initiateRequestToYoutubeApiAndGetChannelInfo
{
NSString * urlYouCanUseAsSample = #"https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?key={YOUR_API_KEY_WITHOUT_CURLY_BRACES}&channelId={CHANNEL_ID_YOU_CAN_GET_FROM_ADDRESS_BAR_WITHOUT_CURLY_BRACES}&part=snippet,id&order=date&maxResults=20";
NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString: urlYouCanUseAsSample];
// Create your request
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
// Send the request asynchronously remember to reload tableview on global thread
[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:request queue:[[NSOperationQueue alloc] init] completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *connectionError) {
// Callback, parse the data and check for errors
if (data && !connectionError) {
NSError *jsonError;
NSDictionary *jsonResult = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&jsonError];
if (!jsonError) {
// better put a breakpoint here to see what is the result and how it is brought to you. Channel id name etc info should be there
NSLog(#"%#",jsonResult);
/// separating "items" dictionary and making array
//
id keyValuePairDict = jsonResult;
NSMutableArray * itemList = keyValuePairDict[#"items"];
for (int i = 0; i< itemList.count; i++) {
/// separating VIDEO ID dictionary from items dictionary and string video id
id v_id0 = itemList[i];
NSDictionary * vid_id = v_id0[#"id"];
id v_id = vid_id;
NSString * video_ID = v_id[#"videoId"];
//you can fill your local array for video ids at this point
// [video_IDS addObject:video_ID];
/// separating snippet dictionary from itemlist array
id snippet = itemList[i];
NSDictionary * snip = snippet[#"snippet"];
/// separating TITLE and DESCRIPTION from snippet dictionary
id title = snip;
NSString * title_For_Video = title[#"title"];
NSString * desc_For_Video = title[#"description"];
//you can fill your local array for titles & desc at this point
// [video_titles addObject:title_For_Video];
// [video_description addObject:desc_For_Video];
/// separating thumbnail dictionary from snippet dictionary
id tnail = snip;
NSDictionary * thumbnail_ = tnail[#"thumbnails"];
/// separating highresolution url dictionary from thumbnail dictionary
id highRes = thumbnail_;
NSDictionary * high_res = highRes[#"high"];
/// separating HIGH RES THUMBNAIL IMG URL from high res dictionary
id url_for_tnail = high_res;
NSString * thumbnail_url = url_for_tnail[#"url"];
//you can fill your local array for titles & desc at this point
[video_thumbnail_url addObject:thumbnail_url];
}
// reload your tableview on main thread
//[self.tableView performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(reloadData) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(reloadInputViews) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
// you can log all local arrays for convenience
// NSLog(#"%#",video_IDS);
// NSLog(#"%#",video_titles);
// NSLog(#"%#",video_description);
// NSLog(#"%#",video_thumbnail_url);
}
else
{
NSLog(#"an error occurred");
}
}
}];
}

Answer 2

First call is a search.list with setting q as channel name and type="channel".
Second one is calling channels.list with that id and get the playlistId of the uploaded videos list.
Third is the playlistItems.list to list videos under that playlist.