YouTube account authentication nodejs - node.js

Question

I am making an application that searches for YouTube videos, and creates a playlist with those videos.
I've figured how to search for videos just using the API key provided, but am completely lost on how to do stuff as a user. At first, I thought that I could just use a service account to host all of the playlist, but I've learned quickly that YouTube doesn't support that.
My ultimate goal is to just create a playlist on my personal YouTube account, so I want that account to be hardcoded in.
I am struggling on changing it from using a service account to my personal account. Many other solutions I've seen use an express server with a frontend component, neither of which I have.
import { google } from 'googleapis';
import fs from 'fs';
const config = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('config.json', 'utf8'));
const key = require('./credentials.json');
const scopes = "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube";
const jwt = new google.auth.JWT(key.client_email, null, key.private_key, scopes);
jwt.authorize((err, response) => {
const yt = google.youtube({
version: 'v3',
auth: jwt,
});
yt.search.list({
part: 'snippet',
q: 'study music | zen music -livestream -live',
maxResults: 1,
}, (err, data) => {
if (err) console.error(err);
if (data) {
console.log(data.data.items);
// TODO: create playlist with these items
}
});
});
Currently, it's using a service account to search for videos. I haven't done the playlist creation part yet because it would just keep giving an error as I'm using a service account.

Answer 1

The YouTube API does not support service accounts. You will need to use Oauth2 and save the refresh token. You can then use your refresh token to request a new access token whenever you need.
I recommend following quickstart
var fs = require('fs');
var readline = require('readline');
var {google} = require('googleapis');
var OAuth2 = google.auth.OAuth2;
// If modifying these scopes, delete your previously saved credentials
// at ~/.credentials/youtube-nodejs-quickstart.json
var SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly'];
var TOKEN_DIR = (process.env.HOME || process.env.HOMEPATH ||
process.env.USERPROFILE) + '/.credentials/';
var TOKEN_PATH = TOKEN_DIR + 'youtube-nodejs-quickstart.json';
// Load client secrets from a local file.
fs.readFile('client_secret.json', function processClientSecrets(err, content) {
if (err) {
console.log('Error loading client secret file: ' + err);
return;
}
// Authorize a client with the loaded credentials, then call the YouTube API.
authorize(JSON.parse(content), getChannel);
});
/**
* Create an OAuth2 client with the given credentials, and then execute the
* given callback function.
*
* #param {Object} credentials The authorization client credentials.
* #param {function} callback The callback to call with the authorized client.
*/
function authorize(credentials, callback) {
var clientSecret = credentials.installed.client_secret;
var clientId = credentials.installed.client_id;
var redirectUrl = credentials.installed.redirect_uris[0];
var oauth2Client = new OAuth2(clientId, clientSecret, redirectUrl);
// Check if we have previously stored a token.
fs.readFile(TOKEN_PATH, function(err, token) {
if (err) {
getNewToken(oauth2Client, callback);
} else {
oauth2Client.credentials = JSON.parse(token);
callback(oauth2Client);
}
});
}
/**
* Get and store new token after prompting for user authorization, and then
* execute the given callback with the authorized OAuth2 client.
*
* #param {google.auth.OAuth2} oauth2Client The OAuth2 client to get token for.
* #param {getEventsCallback} callback The callback to call with the authorized
* client.
*/
function getNewToken(oauth2Client, callback) {
var authUrl = oauth2Client.generateAuthUrl({
access_type: 'offline',
scope: SCOPES
});
console.log('Authorize this app by visiting this url: ', authUrl);
var rl = readline.createInterface({
input: process.stdin,
output: process.stdout
});
rl.question('Enter the code from that page here: ', function(code) {
rl.close();
oauth2Client.getToken(code, function(err, token) {
if (err) {
console.log('Error while trying to retrieve access token', err);
return;
}
oauth2Client.credentials = token;
storeToken(token);
callback(oauth2Client);
});
});
}
/**
* Store token to disk be used in later program executions.
*
* #param {Object} token The token to store to disk.
*/
function storeToken(token) {
try {
fs.mkdirSync(TOKEN_DIR);
} catch (err) {
if (err.code != 'EEXIST') {
throw err;
}
}
fs.writeFile(TOKEN_PATH, JSON.stringify(token), (err) => {
if (err) throw err;
console.log('Token stored to ' + TOKEN_PATH);
});
console.log('Token stored to ' + TOKEN_PATH);
}
/**
* Lists the names and IDs of up to 10 files.
*
* #param {google.auth.OAuth2} auth An authorized OAuth2 client.
*/
function getChannel(auth) {
var service = google.youtube('v3');
service.channels.list({
auth: auth,
part: 'snippet,contentDetails,statistics',
forUsername: 'GoogleDevelopers'
}, function(err, response) {
if (err) {
console.log('The API returned an error: ' + err);
return;
}
var channels = response.data.items;
if (channels.length == 0) {
console.log('No channel found.');
} else {
console.log('This channel\'s ID is %s. Its title is \'%s\', and ' +
'it has %s views.',
channels[0].id,
channels[0].snippet.title,
channels[0].statistics.viewCount);
}
});
}