I’m working on a Visual Basic project and I’m stuck. I want to grab the number of views from a YouTube video URL and show it in a label on my form. I’ve been searching online for hours but can’t find a good answer.
Has anyone done this before? Is it even possible in VB? I’m not sure if I need to use an API or if there’s a simpler way.
I’d really appreciate any tips or code examples you can share. Thanks for your help!
' Example of what I'm trying to do
Dim videoUrl As String = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
Dim viewCount As Integer = GetViewCount(videoUrl)
lblViews.Text = "Views: " & viewCount.ToString()
' But I don't know how to implement GetViewCount()
I’ve actually tackled this problem before in one of my projects. While the YouTube Data API is a solid choice, I found a simpler workaround that might suit your needs. I used the OEmbed API, which doesn’t require any authentication or API keys.
Here’s the gist of it:
Construct the OEmbed URL using the video ID
Make a GET request to that URL
Parse the JSON response to get the view count
The beauty of this method is its simplicity. You don’t need to deal with API quotas or parsing complex HTML. It’s not as feature-rich as the full Data API, but for just grabbing view counts, it does the job nicely.
One caveat: the view count might not be real-time accurate, as OEmbed data can be cached. But for most applications, it’s close enough. Give it a shot and see if it works for your project!
While the YouTube Data API is a reliable method, there’s another approach you might consider. You can use HTTP requests to fetch the video page and extract the view count from the HTML content. This method doesn’t require API keys or quotas, but it’s less stable as it depends on YouTube’s page structure.
Here’s a basic outline:
Use WebClient to download the video page.
Parse the HTML to find the view count (usually in a meta tag).
Extract and convert the count to an integer.
This method is more prone to breaking if YouTube changes their page layout, but it’s simpler to implement for small-scale projects. Just be aware that it might need occasional updates to stay functional.
I encountered a similar issue in a past project and found that YouTube’s data API works best for reliably fetching view counts. In my case, I needed to register for a Google Developer account and acquire an API key before proceeding. I then installed the appropriate NuGet package and set up authentication using the key. Following that, I used the YouTube.Videos.List method to retrieve the video details and extracted the view count from the JSON response.
Parsing the JSON response initially seemed challenging, but after some trial and error it became clear. Keep in mind that API usage is limited, so you should monitor your quota if you plan to check multiple videos.
yo alexlee, i’ve got another idea for ya. have u tried using the oembed api? it’s way easier than the full youtube api. no need for api keys or anything. just make a simple http request with the video url and boom, u get the view count. might not be super real-time but it’s good enough for most stuff. lemme know if u want more details!
hey alexlee, i’ve done something similar before. you’ll need to use the youtube data api for this. it’s not too hard, but you gotta set up a google dev account first. then you can use the api to grab the view count. lemme know if you need more help with the specifics!