YouTube Data API Get Channel by Handle - youtube-data-api

Question

Introducing handles: A new way to identify your YouTube channel
Does the YouTube Data API support querying for a channel by it's #handle? This does not seem to be supported.
ex: https://www.youtube.com/#lionsgatemovies
forUsername param
GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=id,snippet&forUsername=#lionsgatemovies
{
"kind": "youtube#channelListResponse",
"etag": "RuuXzTIr0OoDqI4S0RU6n4FqKEM",
"pageInfo": {
"totalResults": 0,
"resultsPerPage": 5
}
}
id param
GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=id,snippet&id=#lionsgatemovies
{
"kind": "youtube#channelListResponse",
"etag": "RuuXzTIr0OoDqI4S0RU6n4FqKEM",
"pageInfo": {
"totalResults": 0,
"resultsPerPage": 5
}
}
None of the supported filter params seem to be appropriate:
{
"error": {
"code": 400,
"message": "No filter selected. Expected one of: mySubscribers, forUsername, mine, managedByMe, categoryId, id",
"errors": [
{
"message": "No filter selected. Expected one of: mySubscribers, forUsername, mine, managedByMe, categoryId, id",
"domain": "youtube.parameter",
"reason": "missingRequiredParameter",
"location": "parameters.",
"locationType": "other"
}
]
}
}

Answer 1

You can use Search API with q parameter set to #handle
curl \
'https://youtube.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&maxResults=25&q=%40kevinrooke&type=channel&key=[YOUR_API_KEY]'
{
"kind": "youtube#searchListResponse",
"etag": "AYlro9VG2vMtdew4OQiWoQM8Rs0",
"regionCode": "LT",
"pageInfo": {
"totalResults": 1,
"resultsPerPage": 1
},
"items": [
{
"kind": "youtube#searchResult",
"etag": "ls9E_ctoa-RLsqznJwxWlHHIE1s",
"id": {
"kind": "youtube#channel",
"channelId": "UCTdxV_ItCZMayyzGkw7P_qQ"
},
"snippet": {
"publishedAt": "2017-05-27T03:56:38Z",
"channelId": "UCTdxV_ItCZMayyzGkw7P_qQ",
"title": "Kevin Rooke",
"description": "Interviews with the builders bringing the Lightning Network to life. ⚡kerooke#fountain.fm.",
"thumbnails": {
"default": {
"url": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AMLnZu-SpmaNjx7KOMqs5Cr7ZthU60BaQApzt89_dHOlcg=s88-c-k-c0xffffffff-no-rj-mo"
},
"medium": {
"url": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AMLnZu-SpmaNjx7KOMqs5Cr7ZthU60BaQApzt89_dHOlcg=s240-c-k-c0xffffffff-no-rj-mo"
},
"high": {
"url": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AMLnZu-SpmaNjx7KOMqs5Cr7ZthU60BaQApzt89_dHOlcg=s800-c-k-c0xffffffff-no-rj-mo"
}
},
"channelTitle": "Kevin Rooke",
"liveBroadcastContent": "none",
"publishTime": "2017-05-27T03:56:38Z"
}
}
]
}

Answer 2

As of this moment (17th Nov 2022), YouTube has yet to update the Data API with #handle support.

Answer 3

The channelId was scattered around in the Html. You can easily parse them after fetching the url with the handle.
const html = await(await fetch(url)).text()
const channelId = html.match(/(?<=channelId(":"|"\scontent="))[^"]+/g)[0];

Answer 4

Following is the python snippet while we are waiting for YouTube API's official support. This is inspired by goodhyun's wonderful thoughts.
import requests
import re
# return YouTube channel id via handle or False if failed
def scraping_get_channel_id_from_handle(handle:str):
if handle.find('#') == -1:
handle = '#' + handle
url = 'https://www.youtube.com/' + handle
resp = requests.get(url)
if resp.status_code == 200:
found = re.findall('"channelId":"([^"]*)","title"', resp.text)
return found[0]
else:
return False