Abdul Qabiz

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Constructing YouTube FLV URL on client-side without any server-side script

02 Apr 2007

It seems, there is a easier way of constructing YouTube! FLV URL on client-side without using any server-side script.

We need get the YouTube video_id from any of following places:-

Then, construct a URL like this: http://www.youtube.com/v/V3BsjxDZJM0

Above URL is used in YouTube embed-code. It is basically a server-side redirection that points to YouTube Player (.swf). Above redirects (server-side) to following URL:-
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=V3BsjxDZJM0&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//sjc-
static12.sjc.youtube.com/vi/V3BsjxDZJM0/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskKzlTMEFZ1jOh40Xc3qOxzQ

As you can see in above URL, it contains “t” param (in red), which is what we need along with video_id to construct YouTube video (FLV) URL, YouTube FLV URL would look like this:-
http://www.youtube.com/get_video.php?video_id=V3BsjxDZJM0&
t=OEgsToPDskKzlTMEFZ1jOh40Xc3qOxzQ

You can check out code below to figure out things your own. You can also check out the example-app.

Flex 2.0/ActionScript 3.0 example:-

import flash.net.; import flash.events.; import flash.display.*; private var loader:Loader; private var abortId:uint; private function onAppCreationComplete ():void { loader = new Loader (); } private function startLoading ():void { var req:URLRequest = new URLRequest (“http://www.youtube.com/v/3IcwG0jUFxU”); loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.INIT, handlerLoaderInit); loader.load(req); logMessage (“Loading YouTube URL..”); } private function handlerLoaderInit (event:Event):void { logMessage (“Loaded, processing: “ + loader.contentLoaderInfo.url); var urlVars:URLVariables = new URLVariables (); urlVars.decode (loader.contentLoaderInfo.url.split(“?”)[1]); logMessage (“Processed:-“); logMessage (“\t\t video_id:” + urlVars.video_id); logMessage (“\t\t t param:” + urlVars.t); logMessage (“\t\t thumbnail-url:” + urlVars.iurl); var flvURL:String = constructFLVURL (urlVars.video_id, urlVars.t); logMessage (“YouTube FLV URL: “ + flvURL); playVideo (flvURL); logMessage (“Started Playing Video…”); loader.unload(); } private function constructFLVURL (video_id:String, t:String):String { var str:String = “http://www.youtube.com/get_video.php?”; str += “video_id=” + video_id; str += “&t=” + t; return str; } private function playVideo (url:String):void { player.source = url; player.play(); } private function logMessage (message:String):void { outputText.text += message + “\n”; trace (message); }

ActionScript 2.0 code-snippet:-

createEmptyMovieClip (“mc”, getNextHighestDepth ()); var _mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader (); _mclListener = new Object (); _mclListener.onLoadStart = function (target:MovieClip) { trace (“The URL is: “ + target._url); var _lv:LoadVars = new LoadVars (); _lv.decode (target._url.split (“?”)[1]); trace (“t param: “ + _lv.t); trace (“video_id: “ + _lv.video_id); trace (“thumbnail: “ + _lv.iurl); trace (“flv url: “ + constructFLVURL (_lv.video_id, _lv.t)); _mcl.unloadClip (target); }; function constructFLVURL (videoId:String, t:String):String { var str:String = “http://www.youtube.com/get_video.php?”; str += “video_id=” + videoId; str += “&t=” + t; return str; } _mcl.addListener (_mclListener); _mcl.loadClip (“http://www.youtube.com/v/3IcwG0jUFxU”, mc);

[1] Flash clients would require server-side proxy because YouTube changed crossdomain.xml sometimes back.

Technorati tags: youtube, video url, url, flv, client-side, actionscript

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