Develop an endpoint that returns up to 10 results from a YouTube search, given a keyword
- published_at (*)
- id
- title
- description
- thumbnail
(*) - It is noted that the 'snakecase' notation is used, so all other parameters will adhere to this convention.
- extra (additional data that you want to add at your discretion)
In regards to this, I decided to add the parameters direct_link and channel_title, so each video will have the following format:
{
"published_at":"2011-10-19T02:42:54Z",
"id":"1G4isv_Fylg",
"title":"Coldplay - Paradise (Official Video)",
"description":"Coldplay - Paradise is taken from the album Mylo Xyloto released in 2011 [...]",
"thumbnail":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1G4isv_Fylg/default.jpg",
"extra":{
"direct_link":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4isv_Fylg",
"channel_title":"Coldplay"
}
}The list of fetched videos will be contained in a videos parameter, which will share the 'top level' of the response JSON with the following general parameters:
- total_results
- results_per_page
- next_page_token (*) (makes it possible to navigate between the result pages)
- prev_page_token (*) (same as ‘next_page_token’)
Finally, the general format of the response will be as follows:
{
"next_page_token":"CAEQAA",
"total_results":1000000,
"results_per_page":1,
"videos":[
]
}(*) - The next_page_token parameter will only appear if there are more pages of results, likewise, prev_page_token will only appear if we are not positioned on page 1.
- Must be developed in PHP7:
- (13/03/2021): Developed using PHP7's newest version as of today: PHP 7.4.16
- (Update 26/02/2023): Upgraded to the most recent version: PHP 8.2.3
- Framework of your choice (Optional):
- (13/03/2021): Developed with Laravel 8
- (Update 26/02/2023): Upgraded to Laravel 10
- The project must be available on GitHub or BitBucket:
- GitHub was chosen, in the present repository: MatiasCarabella/youtubeSearchAPI (github.com)
- The project must be testable locally, with the necessary documentation on how to do it:
- Correct, I will be addressing the simple process of how to get the application running in the next section.
- Tests (Optional):
- The project was made more robust with the addition of tests, which I will also detail later.
- Any added value is welcome:
- The application accepts a series of optional arguments. These are:
- api_key (holds the mandatory authentication key to use the Google/Youtube API, if this parameter is absent it uses the API_KEY_DEFAULT from the .env file)
- results_per_page (modifies the number of results per page, up to 10 as indicated in the project requirement, if this parameter is absent the default is also 10)
- page_token (allows to navigate between the different pages of results, making use of the parameters next_page_token and prev_page_token, if this parameter is absent it simply defaults to page #1)
- The application accepts a series of optional arguments. These are:
- Generate the folder where you'll download the project, access it from the terminal/console of preference and run the following commands:
git init
git pull https://github.com/MatiasCarabella/youtubeSearchAPI.git
- Copy the .env file (Optional: Set a custom API_KEY_DEFAULT value)
copy .env.example .env (Windows)
cp .env.example .env (Linux)
Now, in order to get the application up and running, you have two options:
Requirements:
- Run the following command to download the necessary dependencies:
composer install
- Generate the encryption key
php artisan key:generate
- Now you can run the project from its root folder whenever you want, using the following command:
php artisan serve
All done!
Requirements:
- Docker installed.
- Run the following command in the project root folder to build & start the application:
docker compose up
All done!
Onto the fun bit, now we're able to use the API. The URL of the endpoint is the following:
http://localhost:8000/api/youtube-search
If we access this URL from a web browser, we'll see something like this:
That's to be expected (since we haven't specified the text to search for), but it gives us confirmation that the API is running successfully!
Now, to effectively test the service we can use a client like Postman:
{
"search": "Paradise"
}The only other mandatory element is the api_key, which can be generated on the Google Cloud Platform.
This can be configured in two ways:
-
As a Request header ('api_key': 'XXXXXXXXXXXXX')
-
As the value of the API_KEY_DEFAULT variable from the projects' env file (When not sent as a header, it is read from here)
API_KEY_DEFAULT=XXXXXXXXXXXXX
In both cases, if an invalid api_key is set (or if there's no api_key), an error will be displayed as returned by the Google API:
Finally, as we mentioned earlier, the optional fields results_per_page and page_token are also available.
- If an invalid value is entered in the results_per_page parameter, it defaults to 10.
- If an invalid value is entered in the page_token or api_key parameters, an error message will be displayed as returned by the Google API.
The bulk of the application's logic is on the following files:
routes->api.php
app->Http->Controllers->YoutubeController.php
app->Services->YoutubeServices.php
tests->Feature->YoutubeTest.php
In order to facilitate the understanding of the code, everything is commented accordingly:
There are some tests that can be run to make sure the application functions properly. These are:
- Validate that an example query returns HTTP status 200 - OK.
- Validate that the JSON response format matches to the stipulated one.
To execute them, simply run the following command from the project root folder:
php artisan test tests/Feature/YoutubeTest.php
I am happy to say that the ‘Have fun!’ bit from the Challenge's description was also achieved, I really enjoyed the project!
Special thanks to @DaianaArena for creating the banner image.
To whoever read this far, thank you very much and best regards!
Matías Carabella - Back-end Developer