YouTube Channel Section Targeter
This is not an official Google product.
Index
Background
Channel sections is a feature in YouTube that allows you to customize the layout of your channel's homepage.
As an advanced feature, you can set targeting options on your channel sections so only certain users can see the section. Available targeting options are: language, country and region. This feature makes it possible to maintain a global channel with targeted channel sections instead of having individual channels for different languages/countries/regions.
This advanced feature, however, is not available through the YouTube website user interface and only accessible through API. More details can be found on the Google Developers website.
Project objective
This tool allows you to quickly setup a web UI to manage targeting settings of channel sections in your YouTube channel.
Setup
You need to deploy the code to a web server to use it. Here are some methods including instructions. You may find related code under example/.
- Publish a web app using App Script (30 mins, less technical)
- Setup a simple App Engine project (30 mins)
- Setup your own hosting for more technical users
Publish a web app using App Script
1 - Copy the sample project
Make a copy of the sample project from the File menu then Make a copy. Be careful of sharing settings so only relevant users/groups have access. Sharing settings are accessible through File, then Share.
2 - Enable API & get the OAuth Client ID
Click Resources, then Cloud Platform project. On the prompted dialog, click the project link highlighted in blue. This brings you to the associated project's control panel.
On the left, click Library and find YouTube Data API on the right. Click it and then click Enable on top.
On the left of the website, click Credentials and copy the Client ID shown on the right with the format "xxxx-xxxxxxxx.apps.googleusercontent.com". Keep this window open for later use.
Back to the copied App Script project. Open the file script.html on the left panel. Locate the placeholder for OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID in top lines of the file and replace its value with the value you just copied.
3 - Deploy the web app
Click on Publish, then click on Deploy as web app. Click Deploy or Update and you will get the external link to the tool. Remember to set Execute the app as to User accessing the web app. If you want others to have access to the tool, change Who has access to the app* to Anyone.
4 - Add origin URL to authorization list
You now need a final step to setup the authentication. Visit the tool via the link you found in the previous step, click Authorize button and you should see a pop up with error messages. Press Ctrl+F and type parameters. origin, you should find the line parameters.origin: https://some-random-characters-script.googleusercontent.com. Copy the URL including "https".
Now switch back to the Cloud Platform website opened on step 2. Click the only item on the Credentials list (the name should be Apps Script), paste the URL in the field under Authorized JavaScript origins. Click Save.
5 - You are all set
The tool is now setup. Refresh the page and you should be able to authenticate now.
Besides copying the sample project, you can also setup your own App Script project from scratch with the help of code under example/app_script/.
Setup a simple Google App Engine project
Note: This setup requires some basic technical skills.
1 - Create a App Engine project
Follow the steps listed on Quickstart for Python App Engine Standard Environment to create a new App Engine application and setup the Google Cloud SDK. Note down the Project ID as we'll need it afterwards.
2 - Enable API & create OAuth Client ID
On the Cloud Console website, click the menu on top right and open API Manager. Click ENABLE API and find YouTube Data API, enable it.
Also open the Credentials page on the left panel, click on Create credentials, select OAuth client ID, select Web application. Follow the instructions to add a product name. Then, add https://your_project_ID.appspot.com to the Authorized JavaScript origins list and click Create. You may also modify these settings later. Copy the Client ID since we'll need it later.
3 - Download the code and configure
Download or clone the source code of this project. Open the example/app_engine/static/channel_targeter.js and locate the placeholder for OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID on the top. Replace the value in quotes to the Client ID you just created.
4 - Deploy the project to App Engine
Open a terminal. Change directory to example/app_engine/ and execute
gcloud app deploy app.yaml --project your_project_id
This will deploy the code to your App Engine application.
5 - You are all set
You should now be able to use the tool by visiting https://your_project_ID.appspot.com/
Note that by default only you have access to the tool. To set access, go to IAM & Admin on the Cloud Console website and add accounts.
Setup your own hosting
If you need more control or have more specific requirements You can surely setup a webserver serving these files. Be sure to setup correct relative paths. For frameworks like Django be careful that the template symbole {{}} might bring confliction with AngularJS.
Also, you need to create a project in Google Cloud Platform, obtain a valid OAuth2 Client ID and put it in the script. You also need to add your website's URL in the Authorized JavaScript origins list on the Google Cloud Platform website.
Technical details
This UI and the logic of the tool is programmed using AngularJS v1 and Angular Material.
Interaction with YouTube is done via the YouTube Data API v3. The API may have limitation and may evolve over time so in case of problems, please refer to the official documentation.
Authentication of the tool is done using Google API Client which adopts standard OAuth 2.0 sign-in. As a requirement for Google API Client you have to setup a web server to serve the tool.
FAQ
Does it work with brand channels and content owner accounts?
Yes. For brand channels, just choose the right channel in the authentication process. For CMS accounts, sign in with the account that has access to the CMS.
In both cases, be careful to use the correct channel ID.
Does the code work on local file system?
No. Due to security concerns, you cannot authorize API calls when the request is issued from local file system. You'll have to use a web server, which could work on localhost or remote hosts.
I have authentication problem saying "Origin mismatch", what do I do?
This problem is likely due to that the OAuth Client ID is not correctly set. You need to have a valid client ID of your own and add the website URL to the Authorized JavaScript origins field of the ID.
Also note that after setting the field, it might take several minutes for the change to be effective.
If you setup your project using App Script, the URL might also change with different versions, you can repeat the step 4 to find the correct URL to add to the allowed origins list.
I get strange errors and the tool does not work anymore.
There could be a bug or a change on the API that broke the tool. If the issue is identified and fixed previously, you can fix it by just update the script with the current version on GitHub by simply copy pasting the related code or redo the deployment steps. If it is still not working, feel free to report it as a bug or try to fix it and contribute back to the code base.
I cannot find some buttons/fields mentioned in this document.
It is likely that the UI/document has changed, try to navigate and find the updated one. You are also welcome to update this document by contributing to the project.
Does this tool collect or send my information?
No. This tool is standalone and doesn't require anything other than the public APIs from YouTube. User information or usage analytics of any kind are also not collected in anyway.
Is there any limit on the usage of the tool?
YouTube Data API are free of charge but with limited quota per day and per user. As long as you don't open your tool for public, for normal usage the quota should be more than enough. More information on quota can be found Google Developers website.
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