23 – YouTube Data API – Comment Threads- insert function

This is article 23 of the YouTube API With PHP series.

The insert function creates a new top-level comment. To add a reply to an existing comment, use the comments.insert method instead. You can use this API call to insert comments for any Video or Channel.

The Request URL is

POST https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads

Parameters

• key (string) required. Your API key
• access_token (string) required in certain cases. This is the user Access token.
• part (string). Required. One or all of the following in comma separated fashion:
  • “id”
  • “snippet”
  • “replies”

 

Example Requests

Insert a CommentThread in a Channel

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?key=xx&access_token=” . $accessToken . “&part=snippet

 

Response

On successful execution a CommentThread resource is returned in JSON format.

Sample code to insert a top level Comment Thread for a Video

 

<?php
    error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE ^ E_WARNING ^ E_DEPRECATED);
    set_time_limit(60 * 3);
    session_start();
    
    $g_youtubeDataAPIKey = "**";
    $channelId = "UCnXmfpAZ1rLsg0Goh0bBHUA";
    $videoId = "WNnNJSXHe6s";


    $_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/commentThreads?key=" . $g_youtubeDataAPIKey .
   			  "&access_token=" . $accessToken . "&part=snippet";

   	 
   	 $topLevelCommentSnippet = new TopLevelCommentSnippet();
   	 $topLevelCommentSnippet->textOriginal = "This is a comment posted via the API";

   	 $topLevelComment = new TopLevelComment();
   	 $topLevelComment->snippet = $topLevelCommentSnippet;
   	 
   	 $snippet = new Snippet();
   	 $snippet->videoId = $videoId;
   	 $snippet->topLevelComment = $topLevelComment;
   	 $snippet->isPublic = true;

   	 $commentThread = new CommentThread();
   	 $commentThread->snippet = $snippet;
   	 
   	 
   	 $data = json_encode($commentThread);

   	 
   	 $curl = curl_init();
   	 curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
   				 CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER=>array('Content-Type: application/json'),
   				 CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => 1,
   				 CURLOPT_URL => $url,
   				 CURLOPT_USERAGENT => 'YouTube API Tester',
   				 CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => 1,
   				 CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST=> 0,
   				 CURLOPT_CAINFO => "../../cert/cacert.pem",
   				 CURLOPT_CAPATH => "../../cert/cacert.pem",
   				 CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => TRUE,
   				 CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST=>"POST",
   				 CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS=>$data
   				 ));
   	 $resp = curl_exec($curl);

   	 curl_close($curl);

   	 var_dump($resp);
   	 


    //////////////////////////////////

    class CommentThread {
   	 public $snippet;
    }

    class Snippet {
   	 public $topLevelComment;
   	 public $isPublic;
   	 public $videoId;
    }

    class TopLevelComment {
   	 public $textOriginal;
    }

    class TopLevelCommentSnippet {
   	 public $textOriginal;
    }

?>

Here is the output:

string(1204) “{ “kind”: “youtube#commentThread”, “etag”: “\”m2yskBQFythfE4irbTIeOgYYfBU/kSR19kRoKQoN0H3RB3fdn1fPZGo\””, “id”: “z123uppgbl2bu3m5304cfb5ycuu5ufrqlpk0k”, “snippet”: { “channelId”: “UCnXmfpAZ1rLsg0Goh0bBHUA”, “videoId”: “WNnNJSXHe6s”, “topLevelComment”: { “kind”: “youtube#comment”, “etag”: “\”m2yskBQFythfE4irbTIeOgYYfBU/LXq8sJPgsfpmZxpyuBRww4qiy8Y\””, “id”: “z123uppgbl2bu3m5304cfb5ycuu5ufrqlpk0k”, “snippet”: { “authorDisplayName”: “Amit Sengupta”, “authorProfileImageUrl”: “https://yt3.ggpht.com/-HGpjiYmK2OY/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAAA/1nRoeezR4HM/s28-c-k-no-mo-rj-c0xffffff/photo.jpg”, “authorChannelUrl”: “http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnXmfpAZ1rLsg0Goh0bBHUA”, “authorChannelId”: { “value”: “UCnXmfpAZ1rLsg0Goh0bBHUA” }, “channelId”: “UCnXmfpAZ1rLsg0Goh0bBHUA”, “videoId”: “WNnNJSXHe6s”, “textDisplay”: “This is a comment posted via the API”, “textOriginal”: “This is a comment posted via the API”, “canRate”: true, “viewerRating”: “none”, “likeCount”: 0, “publishedAt”: “2017-05-28T08:21:27.000Z”, “updatedAt”: “2017-05-28T08:21:27.000Z” } }, “canReply”: true, “totalReplyCount”: 0, “isPublic”: true } } “

 

Here is how it looks on Youtube:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We set up the CommentThread structure using classes. Depending on whether we are inserting a CommentThread for a channel or a video, we either use videoId or channelId in the Snippet structure.

You have to be careful about the two snippet structures – one is within the top level CommentThread class. The other is within the TopLevelComment class. The TopLevelComment class represents a Comment resource , which is similar to a CommentThread resource.