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A Simple YouTube Video Downloader Script in PHP

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YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform in the world. It helps users to upload, view, and share videos that keeps community guidelines. Tons of people selected YouTube video making as a full-time job, as they create and upload videos and getting revenue from YouTube Adsense( Google Adsense). But, YouTube lacks one important feature, direct download of videos to users’ computers or mobiles. That’s why we created this tutorial,   and we will show how to download YouTube videos using PHP. This YouTube downloader PHP script 2021 helps you to download 90% of Youtube videos from Youtube.

Main Features of this YouTube Videos downloader

  • Easy to Install
  • Easy to Customize (This is a very basic PHP script, and easily customizable)
  • Fast Loading without cache mechanism
  • No Database Required.
  • No installation required, just copy-paste the script to your web server that runs PHP

First things first, we have the below scripts to work YouTube downloader.

  1. index.php
  2. class.youtube.php
  3. downloader.php

First, we will examine the class.youtube.php as this is the core file that executes important features for downloading a video from YouTube.

  • getYouTubeCode – Get the YouTube code from a video URL
  • processVideo – Process the video url and return details of the video
<?php
/**
 * Tutsplanet
 *
 * This class narrates the functions to support download a video from YouTube
 * @class YouTubeDownloader
 * @author Tutsplanet
 *
 */

Class YouTubeDownloader {

    /**
     * Get the YouTube code from a video URL
     * @param $url
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getYouTubeCode($url) {
        parse_str( parse_url( $url, PHP_URL_QUERY ), $vars );
        return $vars['v'];
    }

    /**
     * Process the video url and return details of the video
     * @param $vid
     * @return array|void
     */

    public function processVideo($vid) {
        parse_str(file_get_contents("https://youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=".$vid),$info);


        $playabilityJson = json_decode($info['player_response']);
        $formats = $playabilityJson->streamingData->formats;
        $adaptiveFormats = $playabilityJson->streamingData->adaptiveFormats;

        //Checking playable or not
        $IsPlayable = $playabilityJson->playabilityStatus->status;

        //writing to log file
        if(strtolower($IsPlayable) != 'ok') {
            $log = date("c")." ".$info['player_response']."\n";
            file_put_contents('./video.log', $log, FILE_APPEND);
        }

        $result = array();

        if(!empty($info) && $info['status'] == 'ok' && strtolower($IsPlayable) == 'ok') {
            $i=0;
            foreach($adaptiveFormats as $stream) {

                $streamUrl = $stream->url;
                $type = explode(";", $stream->mimeType);

                $qualityLabel='';
                if(!empty($stream->qualityLabel)) {
                    $qualityLabel = $stream->qualityLabel;
                }

                $videoOptions[$i]['link'] = $streamUrl;
                $videoOptions[$i]['type'] = $type[0];
                $videoOptions[$i]['quality'] = $qualityLabel;
                $i++;
            }
            $j=0;
            foreach($formats as $stream) {

                $streamUrl = $stream->url;
                $type = explode(";", $stream->mimeType);

                $qualityLabel='';
                if(!empty($stream->qualityLabel)) {
                    $qualityLabel = $stream->qualityLabel;
                }

                $videoOptionsOrg[$j]['link'] = $streamUrl;
                $videoOptionsOrg[$j]['type'] = $type[0];
                $videoOptionsOrg[$j]['quality'] = $qualityLabel;
                $j++;
            }
            $result['videos'] = array(
                'info'=>$info,
                'adapativeFormats'=>$videoOptions,
                'formats'=>$videoOptionsOrg
            );
            
            
            return $result;
        }
        else {
            return;
        }
    }

}

In processVideo() function, first we parse the outputs from the YouTube video info page. It is important to note that, chunks of data returning from this line of code, but we will not use all of this. Next, we check the status to see if it’s ok, then move to the next steps of parsing the different streams by using this code $playabilityJson->streamingData->adaptiveFormats.

It returns different versions of  YouTube video such as mp4, mp3, and most importantly various qualities(720p,360p). Finally, we push all these to an array and set the value in return.

Download the YouTube video by using a simple form in PHP

We use the below form to take users input ie. YouTube video url. This comes in the index.php.

<form method="post" action="" class="formSmall">
	<div class="row">
		<div class="col-lg-12">
			<h7 class="text-align"> Download YouTube Video</h7>
		</div>
		<div class="col-lg-12">
			<div class="input-group">
				<input type="text" class="form-control" name="video_link" placeholder="Paste link.. e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK_JCtrrv-c">
				<span class="input-group-btn">
				<button type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Go!</button>
			  </span>
			</div><!-- /input-group -->
		</div>
	</div><!-- .row -->
</form>

Next, we have to write our PHP code that inputs the video ID and return the different video URLs for download.

<?php
require_once "class.youtube.php";
$yt  = new YouTubeDownloader();
$downloadLinks ='';
$error='';
if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
    $videoLink = $_POST['video_link'];
    if(!empty($videoLink)) {
        $vid = $yt->getYouTubeCode($videoLink);
        if($vid) {
            $result = $yt->processVideo($vid);
            
            if($result) {
                //print_r($result);
                $info = $result['videos']['info'];
                $formats = $result['videos']['formats'];
                $adapativeFormats = $result['videos']['adapativeFormats'];

                

                $videoInfo = json_decode($info['player_response']);

                $title = $videoInfo->videoDetails->title;
                $thumbnail = $videoInfo->videoDetails->thumbnail->thumbnails{0}->url;
            }
            else {
                $error = "Something went wrong";
            }

        }
    }
    else {
        $error = "Please enter a YouTube video URL";
    }
}
?>

Above script, we include the class fileclass.youtube.php, which is the core of this application. Finally, we confirm the POST method and fetch the results from the class methods.

The below code will show you how to display the YouTube download links in a tabular format, with quality and type.

<?php if($formats):?>
        <div class="row formSmall">
            <div class="col-lg-3">
                <img src="<?php print $thumbnail?>">
            </div>
            <div class="col-lg-9">
                <?php print $title?>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="card formSmall">
            <div class="card-header">
                <strong>With Video & Sound</strong>
            </div>
            <div class="card-body">
                <table class="table ">
                    <tr>
                        <td>Type</td>
                        <td>Quality</td>
                        <td>Download</td>
                    </tr>
                    <?php foreach ($formats as $video) :?>
                        <tr>
                            <td><?php print $video['type']?></td>
                            <td><?php print $video['quality']?></td>
                            <td><a href="downloader.php?link=<?php print urlencode($video['link'])?>&title=<?php print urlencode($title)?>&type=<?php print urlencode($video['type'])?>">Download</a> </td>
                        </tr>
                    <?php endforeach;?>
                </table>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="card formSmall">
            <div class="card-header">
                <strong>Videos video only/ Audios audio only</strong>
            </div>
            <div class="card-body">
                <table class="table ">
                    <tr>
                        <td>Type</td>
                        <td>Quality</td>
                        <td>Download</td>
                    </tr>
                    <?php foreach ($adapativeFormats as $video) :?>
                        <tr>
                            <td><?php print $video['type']?></td>
                            <td><?php print $video['quality']?></td>
                            <td><a href="downloader.php?link=<?php print urlencode($video['link'])?>&title=<?php print urlencode($title)?>&type=<?php print urlencode($video['type'])?>">Download</a> </td>
                        </tr>
                    <?php endforeach;?>
                </table>
            </div>
        </div>
        <?php endif;?>

How to download the video using the link?

You may have noticed there is a page called downloader.php in the above script. This script is responsible for the force download of the file to your computer or mobile. This is the standard force download process in PHP.

<?php
$downloadURL = urldecode($_GET['link']);
//print  $downloadURL;exit;
$type = urldecode($_GET['type']);
$title = urldecode($_GET['title']);

//Finding file extension from the mime type
$typeArr = explode("/",$type);
$extension = $typeArr[1];

$fileName = $title.'.'.$extension;


if (!empty($downloadURL)) {
    header("Cache-Control: public");
    header("Content-Description: File Transfer");
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=\"$fileName\"");
    header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");

    readfile($downloadURL);

}

I hope everyone enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share this article with your peers.

You can download this source code from GitHub Repo

 

 

UPDATE(20 Aug 2020)

The adaptive formats in YouTube provide videos with video only and audios with audio-only options. But we have updated the script with two other formats that are available with both audio and video.  The only solution to work with different quality is to merge audio and video from adaptive formats.  We are not going very deep with ffmpg, but you may install and play with this cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video.

A sample command would be

ffmpeg -i videoplayback.mp4 -i videoplayback.m4a -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mp4

Relates Articles

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at Tutsplanet is a dedicated team to write various tutorials about subjects like Programming, Technology and Operating Systems.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. Asep Marzuki says

    i Got This Error

    Notice: Undefined index: url_encoded_fmt_stream_map in D:\xampp\htdocs\simple-down\class.youtube.php on line 45

    Notice: Undefined index: type in D:\xampp\htdocs\simple-down\class.youtube.php on line 52

    Notice: Undefined index: url in D:\xampp\htdocs\simple-down\class.youtube.php on line 55

    Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in D:\xampp\htdocs\simple-down\class.youtube.php on line 56

    Notice: Undefined index: quality in D:\xampp\htdocs\simple-down\class.youtube.php on line 57

    how to fix it ?

    Reply

  6. Macueco says

    Don’t work.

    link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Tn0IhgMEk

    NOTICE:
    Undefined index: url_encoded_fmt_stream_map in C:\wamp\www\Simple-YouTube-Downloader-master\class.youtube.php on line 45

    Undefined index: type in C:\wamp\www\Simple-YouTube-Downloader-master\class.youtube.php on line 52

    Undefined index: url in C:\wamp\www\Simple-YouTube-Downloader-master\class.youtube.php on line 55

    Undefined offset: 1 in C:\wamp\www\Simple-YouTube-Downloader-master\class.youtube.php on line 56

    Undefined index: quality in C:\wamp\www\Simple-YouTube-Downloader-master\class.youtube.php on line 57

    Reply

    • Editorial Staff says

      In this simple script, we are using publicly available YouTube API (https://youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=ID and it’s restricted to show licensed content’s download links. You are not supposed download a licensed material unless you pay for it.

      Not sure how those other apis works, I should invest some time to dig in to that..

      Reply

  10. Ravi says

    Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$adaptiveFormats in G:\xampp\htdocs\youtube\class.youtube.php on line 34

    Reply

  14. Ajk Khan Academy says

    YouTube Thumbnail Downloader HD If you want to download the thumbnail of any YouTube video, with HD quality and absolutely free.whenever you download YouTube video thumbnails you have different qualities of picture whenever you download a YouTube thumbnail you have many qualities and your wish is that you download in your favorite quality you have been provided in many qualities providing you HD quality quality 720P HD and Full HD and 1080 and many other pixels

    Reply

    • kashif says

      sir i have also same problem

      Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$url in E:\xampp\htdocs\youtube\second\class.youtube.php on line 52

      Reply

  16. Hafiz Ameer Hamza says

    Its working fine and can download the videos in any avaiable quality using this code.

    Thanks

    Reply

  17. hermit1771 says

    Hello.
    Could you give some advice or even write what to do so that the script does not pump the video to pk, but saves it to the server?

    Reply

    • Editorial Staff says

      Just read the update at the post bottom. And please try with the updated version of code from Git

      Reply

  19. Farhan says

    Hello

    Am getting this error on some videos

    Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$url

    How to resolve this?

    Also github Url?

    Reply

  20. Farhan says

    Hello

    Am getting this error on some videos

    Notice: Undefined index: url

    How to resolve this?

    also your github link?

    Reply

  22. Hafiz Ameer Hamza says

    Hello admin,
    Script is working. But the videos don’t have any sound. Can you please help in this matter why videos don’t have sound ?? I would really appreciate if you help in this. You already did a great job by sharing this code.

    Thanks

    Reply

    • Editorial Staff says

      We have updated the post, please read the update section added at the bottom of the post and try to pull the git repo again.

      Reply

  25. Rudolf says

    Nicely written and done my friend!
    I’ve only just begun writing myself in the last few days and noticed manjy writers simply
    rehash olld content but add ery littloe of worth. It’s
    fantastic to read a helpful article of some true valuie to myself and your other followers.

    It’s going down onn the lisst of things I need to replicate as a new
    blogger. Reader engagement and content quality aree king.
    Many terrific thoughts; you have definitely made it on my list
    of sites to follow!

    Keep up the excellent work!
    All the best,
    Lem

    Reply

  26. vsezaymy.su says

    It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this outstanding blog!
    I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to
    my Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this site with my Facebook group.
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    Reply

  27. JAC says

    Notice: Undefined variable: formats in C:\xampp\htdocs\index.php on line 80

    Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$url in C:\xampp\htdocs\class.youtube.php on line 52

    Reply

  28. Max says

    Why is it that various other download sites and youtube-dl have no trouble finding the googlevideo.com URLs for videos with music, but this script doesn’t find anything for almost every video with music? Normal videos seem to work fine, official audio or music videos give an error. I get that there are restricted videos, but what are the other parties mentioned doing different? Thanks for the script anyway, this is just out of curiosity!

    Reply

  29. mesterperfect says

    I have a problem
    Notice: Undefined variable: formats in E:\xampp\htdocs\Simple-YouTube-Downloader-master\index.php on line 80

    Reply

  32. YTMP3CONVERTER says

    Hi there,
    Thanks for this great script, its working fine on my live server on pc/laptop but on mobile phones when i try to download its shows ” server problem” during downloading and not able to download.

    Reply

  38. Khaeroni . says

    bruh i dont want to fetch all size video on table Videos . i want video only with size 720p and 480p. any idea how to do this? or which line code to change this?

    Reply

    • Editorial Staff says

      Check if you have supplied a valid youtube url. Please note that this script is just a demo, so you need tweak the validations and other parts etc?

      Reply

  41. damian28102000 says

    Warning: failed loading cafile stream: `C:\xampp\apache\bin\curl-ca-bundle.crt’ in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 30

    Warning: file_get_contents(): Failed to enable crypto in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 30

    Warning: file_get_contents(https://youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=bCiSELRb1oQ): failed to open stream: operation failed in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 30

    Notice: Undefined index: player_response in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 33

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘streamingData’ of non-object in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 34

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘formats’ of non-object in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 34

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘streamingData’ of non-object in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 35

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘adaptiveFormats’ of non-object in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 35

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘playabilityStatus’ of non-object in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 38

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘status’ of non-object in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 38

    Notice: Undefined index: player_response in C:\dev\class.youtube.php on line 42

    Reply

  43. owen says

    script works great except that the script gives an error on random videos.
    I have a series of videos in a you tube channel, they have all similar information and format.
    The first video in the chain won’t download, the rest will.
    the error log is a jumble and I can’t really make out what the error is as to why it won’t come up with the file formats when we go to download. I tried this with the default script in the zip file as well, withouth any of my html modifications.

    any suggestions?

    Reply

  45. Orlaz says

    hello, thanks for the script it works perfecctly but i will like to customized my url like http;//mydomain.com/youtube/videoid or any other way round.

    so i can send for someone to download a particular video without having to enter the video url again

    Reply

  47. raj says

    not work – Notice: Undefined index: v in C:\xampp\htdocs\Simple-YouTube-Downloader-master\class.youtube.php on line 20

    help

    Reply

  50. Rigo says

    I like the script and it works just as simple as it is.

    Is there a way to get a shorter download link?
    So the link can be shared after creating the download link.

    Thank You!

    Reply

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