Reddit2tube.mp4

Reddit2Tube

Automatically populate your YouTube channel with highly-rated Reddit videos

---

Features

• Automate the process of downloading popular videos from public subreddits
• Simplify video uploads to your YouTube channel
• Streamline the process of creating titles and descriptions for your content using predefined templates

---

Libraries

• Praw
• yt_dlp
• google-auth et al
• google-api-python-client

Requirements

• Python +3.8
• A YouTube Channel created with either a Google personal account (NOT Recommended) or with a Google Workspace or Google Cloud Identity account (Highly Recommended)
• YouTube Data API v3 access
• Reddit API access

---

Getting your Reddit app credentials

These instructions assume you have a Reddit account.

1. Go to > https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps/
2. Fill form:
   • Name - your app name (e.g. "Cool app")
   • Description - what your app does (e.g. "My Cool app gets my favourite videos")
   • Select "script"
3. Click on Create app
4. Copy your client ID and secret key in a safe place

Getting access to YouTube API v3

Using Reddit2Tube for personal use? Create a YouTube Channel using a Google Workspace (paid) or a Google Cloud Identity (free) account
If you are using Reddit2Tube for your own personal use I'd highly recommend you to NOT upload to the YouTube channel created with your personal Google account. Instead, create a new YouTube channel using a Google Workplace (paid) or Google's Cloud Identity Free account.

Why can't I use my YouTube channel created with my personal Google account?
You can but YouTube will place all your uploaded videos in locked mode (under review) until your app is verified. Since the app verification process could take weeks and requires some extra effort, it is only worth going through it only if you are planning to create an app that is going to be used by many users. Alternatively if you are using Reddit2Tube for personal use create a YouTube Channel with a Google Workspace or Google's Cloud Identity Free account to start uploading videos programmatically right away.

In general this is how you set up the YouTube API v3:

1. Log to your Google Cloud Console https://console.cloud.google.com/
2. Create a project and name it
3. In Enabled APIs and services:
   • Add YouTube Data API v3
4. In Credentials click API Key:
   • Create an API Key (and copy it somewhere as it is going to be used later on)
5. Again in Credentials click OAuth client ID:
   • In application type select Desktop client to authenticate in your browser.
   • Click DOWNLOAD JSON to download the credentials and rename file to client_secret.json.
6. In OAuth consent screen:
   • Add Test user
     • In User type:
       • Select 'External' if your app is going to be used by many users (requires app verification)
       • Select 'Internal' if your app is going to be used only by you (no app verification). Note that you won't be able to select Internal if you created the Google Cloud project with your Google Personal account (you need a Google Workspace or Google's Cloud Identity Free account in order to select this option).
   • Add scope: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload

YouTube API v3 OAuth client credentials

Create a config folder and put the json file containing the Client ID and Client Secret credentials inside it. Name it as client_secret.json.

Example of copying the OAuth client credentials to the config folder:

mkdir config/
cp /tmp/client_secret_1234556-3oiuoer3p939rsaqp.apps.googleusercontent.com.json ~/Reddit2Tube/config/client_secret.json

Upload limit
You will have a quota limit of 10,000 queries a day (this is equivalent to uploading no more than 6 videos at a cost of 1600 queries per video). You can request a quota increase though.

---

Installation

Create virtual environment

virtualenv -p python3 ~/.virtualenvs/Reddit2Tube

Active it

source ~/.virtualenvs/Reddit2Tube/bin/activate

Git clone

git clone https://github.com/roperi/Reddit2Tube.git

Install dependencies

cd Reddit2Tube/
pip install - requirements.txt

Configure

Create .env file in root folder

touch .env

Add the following to .env file:

# Database
DATABASE_FILE='db.sqlite3'

# Reddit
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID="YOUR-REDDIT-CLIENT-ID"
REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET="YOUR-REDDIT-SECRET"
REDDIT_USERNAME="YOUR-REDDIT_USERNAME"
REDDIT_PASSWORD="YOUR-REDDIT_PASSWORD"
REDDIT_USER_AGENT="User-Agent: Reddit2Tube/1.0 by YOUR-REDDIT-USERNAME"

# YouTube API V3
CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE='config/client_secret.json'
SCOPES='https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload' # list of comma-separated scopes (in this case we are only using one scope)
API_SERVICE_NAME='youtube'
API_VERSION='v3'

Database

Create database to keep track of the videos uploaded to YouTube (so it won't be uploaded again).

In command-line:

sqlite3 db.sqlite3 'CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS uploaded_videos (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, video_id TEXT UNIQUE, title TEXT, upload_datetime DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);'

Customising YouTube Tiles and Descriptions with Templates

With the ability to define title and description variables based on the attributes of the praw submission object, users can ensure that their YouTube uploads are personalized and informative, enhancing their content creation and sharing experience.

Create a templates folder and put your title and description templates in there.

mkdir templates/
touch templates/title.txt
touch templats/description.txt

Content example of templates/title.txt

"{title}" by {author}

Content example of templates/description.txt

This video was posted by {author}.

Submission attributes that can be used in both templates:

'title': submission.title,
'id': submission.id,
'author': submission.name.author,
'selftext': submission.selftext,
'url': submission.url,
'score': submission.score,
'num_comments': submission.num_comments,
'created_utc': submission.created_utc,
'subreddit': submission.subreddit,
'is_self': submission.is_self,
'link_flair_text': submission.link_flair_text,
'locked': submission.locked,

Logging

Downloads and uploads are logged in a file inside the log folder.

Create log folder

mkdir log/

Usage

usage: Reddit2Tube.py [-h] [--subreddit_name SUBREDDIT_NAME] [--reddit_num_submissions REDDIT_NUM_SUBMISSIONS] [--time_filter TIME_FILTER] [--category CATEGORY] [--privacy_status PRIVACY_STATUS] [--made_for_kids]
                      [--just_download]

Download and upload top Reddit videos to YouTube.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --subreddit_name SUBREDDIT_NAME
                        Name of the subreddit
  --reddit_num_submissions REDDIT_NUM_SUBMISSIONS
                        Number of Reddit submissions to process
  --time_filter TIME_FILTER
                        Time filter for Reddit submissions (e.g., "day", "week")
  --category CATEGORY   YouTube video category
  --privacy_status PRIVACY_STATUS
                        YouTube video privacy status (e.g., "private", "public", "unlisted")
  --made_for_kids       Set if the video is made for kids
  --just_download       Skip YouTube uploading

Usage example
Upload the top video of the day from r/Cats to your YouTube channel.

python Reddit2Tube.py \
  --subreddit_name "cats" \
  --reddit_num_submissions 1 \
  --time_filter "day" \
  --privacy_status "private" \
  --made_for_kids

Add the flag --made_for_kids if you want to make the video kid friendly. Otherwise, don't set this flag.
To skip the YouTube upload part use the --just_download flag.

Output example

[INFO. __main__, (line #72) - 2023-11-19 19:51:14,480] Authenticating with Reddit
[INFO. __main__, (line #102) - 2023-11-19 19:51:16,146] Downloading `Cat falls from sofa baby laughs` from `https://v.redd.it/t5dads5c77c1`
[generic] Extracting URL: https://v.redd.it/t5pdadsabo365c77c1
[generic] t5pbo365c77c1: Downloading webpage
[redirect] Following redirect to https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/comments/18law16c/cat_falls_sofa/?rdt=34051
[Reddit] Extracting URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/comments/18law16c/cat_falls_sofa/?rdt=34051
[Reddit] 18law16c: Downloading JSON metadata
[Reddit] 18law16c: Downloading m3u8 information
[Reddit] 18law16c: Downloading MPD manifest
[info] t5pbo365c77c1: Downloading 1 format(s): fallback+dash-8
[download] Destination: /tmp/Cat falls from sofa baby laughs.ffallback.mp4
[download] 100% of   45.26MiB in 00:00:37 at 1.22MiB/s
[download] Destination: /tmp/Cat falls from sofa baby laughs.fdash-8.m4a
[download] 100% of    1.25MiB in 00:00:00 at 1.28MiB/s
[Merger] Merging formats into "/tmp/Cat falls from sofa baby laughs.mp4"
Deleting original file /tmp/Cat falls from sofa baby laughs.fdash-8.m4a (pass -k to keep)
Deleting original file /tmp/Cat falls from sofa baby laughs.ffallback.mp4 (pass -k to keep)
[INFO. __main__, (line #112) - 2023-11-19 19:52:07,891] Authenticating with Youtube
Please visit this URL to authorize this application: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?response_type=code&client_id=1233454734-q1g9rahdshadioaud82vbp76mumtl.apps.googleusercontent.com&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A8080%2F&scope=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.googleapis.com%2Fauth%2Fyoutube.upload&state=ud8a7jAHdaMnAsjdas9jdsaASD23&access_type=offline
Uploading file...
Uploading file...
Uploading file...
Uploading file...
Uploading file...
Uploading file...
Video id HN2Nv_5wJA was successfully uploaded

YouTube Authentication & Authorization flow

The first time you run Reddit2Tube, YouTube will ask you to manually authenticate. You must grant permission to your app to be able to access your YouTube account.

The file config/token.json stores your user's access and refresh tokens, and is created automatically when the authorization flow completes for the first time. config/token.json will be used for the next run.

---

Production

Once you are done with local development testing you can start using Reddit2Tube in a production server for total automation.

Upload your local development files

Upload your local .env, database, templates and credentials to the remote server via scp.

Important
Make sure to run Reddit2Tube in your local development to force the creation of a refresh token so you won't be asked to authenticate in the remote server.

# Assuming you git cloned Reddit2Tube in user's root folder.

mkdir templates/ config/
scp .env your-user@your-ip-address:"/home/your-user/Reddit2Tube/"
scp db.sqlite3 your-user@your-ip-address:"/home/your-user/Reddit2Tube/"
scp templates/* your-user@your-ip-address:"/home/your-user/Reddit2Tube/templates"
scp config/* your-user@your-ip-address:"/home/your-user/Reddit2Tube/config/"

Bash script

To automate the download/upload workflow you can use a bash script executed as a cron job.

In the project folder create a bin folder and create a Reddit2Tube.sh bash script in it.

It will log its output to log/Reddit2Tube.log.

mkdir bin/ log/
touch bin/Reddit2Tube.sh

Paste the following to bin/Reddit2Tube.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Execute `Reddit2Tube.py` module if it is not running.
#
DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
parent="$(dirname "$DIR")"

if pgrep -f "Reddit2Tube.py" &>/dev/null; then
    :
else
    # Activate virtualenv
    source ~/.virtualenvs/Reddit2Tube/bin/activate
    # Run
    nohup ~/.virtualenvs/Reddit2Tube/bin/python $parent/Reddit2Tube.py --subreddit_name "cats" --reddit_num_submissions 3 --time_filter week --privacy_status private > $parent/log/Reddit2Tube.log  2>&1 &

fi

Note that the above script uploads the top 3 r/Cats videos of the week to your YouTube channel. Edit the script to suit your use case.

Make it executable

chmod +x bin/Reddit2Tube.sh

Cron job

Create a cron job to execute the above script.

Type contab -e and create a cron job that suits your needs.

In the following example Reddit2Tube.sh will be executed once a week at 5:00am.

0 5 * * 1 $HOME/Reddit2Tube/bin/Reddit2Tube.sh

Save the crontab and exit.

And that's it! The cron job will run once a week and upload the 3 most upvoted videos from r/Cats to your YouTube channel in private mode.

Keep refreshing your tokens

Don't forget to get a new refresh token by running Reddit2Tube at local level and upload again your config/token.json to avoid being asked to authenticate in the remote server. It seems refresh tokens last 7 days.

---

Copyright and license

Copyright © 2023 Roperi. MIT License.