YouTube Scraping Service Setup Instructions

The YouTube functionality now uses a scraping service instead of the YouTube Data API. This avoids API quotas and provides real YouTube data.

Setup:

1. Start the YouTube Scraping Service

The scraping service is a Go application that scrapes YouTube data without using YouTube API:

# Navigate to the backend directory
cd /path/to/trackeep/backend

# Run the YouTube scraper (you already have the code)
go run youtube_scraper.go

The scraper will start on http://localhost:7857

2. Configure Environment

Copy .env.example to .env:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env if needed (default values should work):

VITE_YOUTUBE_SCRAPER_URL=http://localhost:7857

3. Restart Development Server

Stop and restart the frontend development server:

npm run dev

Features Available with Scraping Service:

✅ Real Channel Videos: Latest videos from featured channels ✅ No API Quotas: Unlimited scraping without YouTube API limits ✅ Accurate Metadata: Real view counts, durations, publish dates ✅ Channel Info: Subscriber counts and channel details ✅ Live Data: Real-time YouTube data

Scraping Service Endpoints:

GET /channel_videos?channel={handle_or_url} - Get videos from a channel
GET / - API documentation (opens in browser)

Supported Channel Formats:

Handles: @Fireship, Fireship
Full URLs: https://www.youtube.com/@Fireship/videos
Channel tabs: /videos, /shorts, /streams

Fallback:

If the scraping service is not running, the app will fall back to demo mode with sample data.

Troubleshooting:

Scraper not running: Start the Go scraper with go run youtube_scraper.go
Port conflict: The scraper uses port 7857 by default
CORS issues: The scraper includes CORS middleware for web applications
Network issues: Ensure the scraper can access YouTube

Benefits Over YouTube API:

✅ No API key required
✅ No quota limits
✅ Real-time data
✅ No billing costs
✅ Works with any YouTube channel

2.1 KiB Raw Blame History