This is article 31 of the YouTube API With PHP series.
A GuideCategory resource identifies a category that YouTube algorithmically assigns based on a channel’s content or other indicators, such as the channel’s popularity. The list is similar to video categories, with the difference being that a video’s uploader can assign a video category but only YouTube can assign a channel category.
This is not to be confused with the Video categories list. If you want a list of available Video Categories, then you should check the Video Categories resource. The Guide Category will only return recommended categories. In some cases, there may not be any Guide Categories.
Every guide category has a Channel associated with it. These Channels are created by Youtube and are not user-created.
The following function is available.
1.list
Returns a list of categories that can be associated with YouTube channels.
The Request URL is
GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/guideCategories
Parameters
- key (string) required. Your API key
- part (string). Required. Only this value is valid:
- “snippet”
- Filters (string) required. One of the following:
- id (string) This specifies a comma-separated list of video category IDs for the resources that you are retrieving.
- regionCode (string) This instructs the API to return the list of guide categories available in the specified country. The parameter value is a two letter country code.
- hl (string) optional. The hl parameter specifies the language that will be used for text values in the API response. The default value is en-US.
Example Requests
Get guide categories for a particular country
https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/guideCategories?key=xx&part=snippet®ionCode=xx
Get guide categories for a Channel category
https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/guideCategories?key=xx&part=snippet&id=xx
Response
A successful API call will return an array of GuideCategory resources encoded in json:
{ "kind": "youtube#guideCategoryListResponse", "etag": etag, "nextPageToken": string, "prevPageToken": string, "pageInfo": { "totalResults": integer, "resultsPerPage": integer }, "items": [ (guideCategory resource) ] }
The Response components are explained below:
- kind (string) “youtube#guideCategoryListResponse”
- etag (string) See ETags Explained section
- nextPageToken (string) token for the next page
- prevPageToken (string) token for the previous page
- totalResults (int) total count of results obtained
- resultsPerPage (int) results per page requested
- items (array) array of GuideCategory Resource items returned
The JSON structure of a GuideCategory Resource is shown below:
{ "kind": "youtube#guideCategory", "etag": etag, "id": string, "snippet": { "channelId": "UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ", "title": string } }
An explanation of the various fields are given below:
- kind (string) This value is always “youtube#guideCategory”
- etag (string) See ETags Explained section
- id (string) The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the guide category.
- channelId (string) The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the channel publishing the guide category.
- title (string) The category’s title.
Sample code to get all the guideCategories for a country:
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE ^ E_WARNING ^ E_DEPRECATED);
session_start();
set_time_limit(60 * 3);
$g_youtubeDataAPIKey = "**";
$channelId = "UCIJ0lLcABPdYGp7pRMGccAQ";
$_SESSION["code_id"] = $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];
if ($_SESSION["access_token"] == null || $_SESSION["access_token"] == "") {
// check for oauth response
header("Location: ../../init-login.php");
exit;
}
$accessToken = $_SESSION["access_token"];
// make api request
$url = "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/guideCategories?key=" . $g_youtubeDataAPIKey .
"&part=snippet®ionCode=au";
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => 1,
CURLOPT_URL => $url,
CURLOPT_USERAGENT => 'YouTube API Tester',
CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => 1,
CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST=> 0,
CURLOPT_CAINFO => "../../cert/cacert.pem",
CURLOPT_CAPATH => "../../cert/cacert.pem",
CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => TRUE
));
$resp = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
if ($resp) {
$json = json_decode($resp);
if ($json) {
echo("JSON decoded<br>");
$total = $json->pageInfo->totalResults;
echo($total . " categories found.<br><br>");
$items = $json->items;
foreach($items as $item) {
$id = $item->id;
$channelId = $item->snippet->channelId;
$title = $item->snippet->title;
echo("id :" . $id . " Channel id: " . $channelId . "<br>");
echo($title . "<hr>");
}
}
else
exit("Error. could not parse JSON." . json_last_error_msg());
} // if resp
?>
Here is the Output:
JSON decoded id :GCQmVzdCvZiBZb3VUdWJl Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Best of YouTube id :GCQ3JlYXRvciBvbiB0aGUgUmlzZQ Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Creator on the Rise id :GCTXVzaWM Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Music id :GCQ29tZWR5 Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Comedy id :GCRmlsbSAmIEVudGVydGFpbm1lbnQ Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Film & Entertainment id :GCR2FtaW5n Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Gaming id :GCQmVhdXR5ICYgRmFzaGlvbg Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Beauty & Fashion id :GCU3BvcnRz Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Sports id :GCVGVjaA Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Tech id :GCQ29va2luZyAmIEhlYWx0aA Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ Cooking & Health id :GCTmV3cyAmIFBvbGl0aWNz Channel id: UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ News & Politics
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