youtube2zim
allows you to create a ZIM file
from a Youtube Channel/Username or one-or-more Playlists.
It downloads the video (webm
or mp4
extension โ optionnaly
recompress them in lower-quality, smaller size), the thumbnails, the
subtitles and the authors' profile pictures ; then, it create a static
HTML files folder of it before creating a ZIM off of it.
ffmpeg
for video transcoding (only used with--lower-quality
).curl
andunzip
to install Javascript dependencies. Seeget_js_deps.sh
if you want to do it manually.
Here comes a few different ways to install youtube2zim
.
youtube2zim
is a Python3 software. If you are not using the
Docker image, you are advised to use it in a
virtualenv to avoid installing software
dependences on your system.
virtualenv -p python3 ./ # Create virtualenv
source bin/activate # Activate the virtualenv
pip3 install youtube2zim # Install dependencies
youtube2zim --help # Display youtube2zim help
At the end, call deactivate
to quit the virtual environment.
See requirements.txt
for the list of python dependencies.
docker run -v my_dir:/output openzim/youtube youtube2zim --help
sudo pip3 install -U youtube2zim
youtube2zim
uses Youtube API v3 to fetch data from Youtube. You thus need to provide an API_KEY
to use the scraper.
To get an API:
- Connect to Google Developers Console
- Create a new Project then Select it.
- When asked, choose Create Credentials and select the API Key type. (Credentials page)
youtube2zim --api-key "<your-api-key>" --type user --id "Vsauce"
- Your API_KEY is subject to usage quotas (10,000 requests/day) so use
--only_test_branding
when adjusting parameters and branding to not waste your quota. - If you encounter issues reading ZIM files created using this scraper, please take a look at the Compatibility Matrix before opening a ticket.
youtube2zim
produces a single ZIM file for a youtube request (channel
, user
, playlists
.
youtube2zim-playlists
allows you to create one ZIM file per playlist instead.
This script is a wrapper around youtube2zim
and is bundled with the main package.
youtube2zim-playlists --help
Sample usage:
youtube2zim-playlists --indiv-playlists --api-key XXX --type user --id Vsauce --playlists-name="vsauce_en_playlist-{playlist_id}"
Those are the required arguments for youtube2zim-playlists
but you can also pass any regular youtube2zim
argument. Those will be forwarded to youtube2zim
(which will be run independently for each playlist).
Specificities:
--title
and--description
are mutually exclusive with--playlists-title
and--playlists-description
.- If using
--title
or--description
, all your playlists ZIMs will have the same, static metadata. This is rarely wanted. --playlists-title
and--playlists-description
allows you to dynamically customize them via some playlist-related variables:{title}
: the playlist title{description}
: the playlist description{slug}
: slugified version of the playlist title{playlist_id}
: playlist ID on youtube{creator_id}
: playlist's owner channel/user ID.{creator_name}
: playlist's owner channel/user name.
- You can omit them and
youtube2zim
will auto-generate those. - you must specify
--playlists-name
(supports variables listed above). --playlists-name
is used to set theName
metadata of the ZIM (should be unique) and if not set separately, the output file name for the ZIM.--metadata-from
allows to specify a path or URL to a JSON file specifying custom static metadata for individual playlists. Format:
{
"<playlist-id>": {
"name": "",
"zim-file": "",
"title": "",
"description": "",
"tags": "",
"creator": "",
"profile": "",
"banner": ""
}
}
All fields are optional and taken from command-line/default if not found. <playlist-id>
represents the Youtube Playlist ID.
If you feel the need for setting additional details in this file, chances are you should run youtube2zim
independently for that playlist (still possible!)
Before contributing be sure to check out the CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines.