]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - CONTRIBUTING.md
[TikTok] Fix extraction for sigi-based webpages (#2164)
[yt-dlp.git] / CONTRIBUTING.md
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8c6f4daa 1# CONTRIBUTING TO YT-DLP
2
3- [OPENING AN ISSUE](#opening-an-issue)
4 - [Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?](#is-the-description-of-the-issue-itself-sufficient)
5 - [Are you using the latest version?](#are-you-using-the-latest-version)
6 - [Is the issue already documented?](#is-the-issue-already-documented)
7 - [Why are existing options not enough?](#why-are-existing-options-not-enough)
8 - [Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp](#have-you-read-and-understood-the-changes-between-youtube-dl-and-yt-dlp)
9 - [Is there enough context in your bug report?](#is-there-enough-context-in-your-bug-report)
10 - [Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?](#does-the-issue-involve-one-problem-and-one-problem-only)
11 - [Is anyone going to need the feature?](#is-anyone-going-to-need-the-feature)
12 - [Is your question about yt-dlp?](#is-your-question-about-yt-dlp)
d80d98e7 13 - [Are you willing to share account details if needed?](#are-you-willing-to-share-account-details-if-needed)
8c6f4daa 14- [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
15 - [Adding new feature or making overarching changes](#adding-new-feature-or-making-overarching-changes)
16 - [Adding support for a new site](#adding-support-for-a-new-site)
17 - [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions)
18 - [Mandatory and optional metafields](#mandatory-and-optional-metafields)
19 - [Provide fallbacks](#provide-fallbacks)
20 - [Regular expressions](#regular-expressions)
21 - [Long lines policy](#long-lines-policy)
22 - [Inline values](#inline-values)
23 - [Collapse fallbacks](#collapse-fallbacks)
24 - [Trailing parentheses](#trailing-parentheses)
25 - [Use convenience conversion and parsing functions](#use-convenience-conversion-and-parsing-functions)
26- [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp)
27
28
29
30# OPENING AN ISSUE
31
32Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: [yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues). Unless you were prompted to or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in our [discord server](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r).
33
34**Please include the full output of yt-dlp when run with `-Uv`**, i.e. **add** `-Uv` flag to **your command line**, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \`\`\` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
35```
36$ yt-dlp -Uv <your command line>
37[debug] Command-line config: ['-v', 'demo.com']
38[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out utf-8, pref UTF-8
39[debug] yt-dlp version 2021.09.25 (zip)
40[debug] Python version 3.8.10 (CPython 64bit) - Linux-5.4.0-74-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.29
41[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.2.4, ffprobe 4.2.4
86e8c894 42[debug] Proxy map: {}
8c6f4daa 43Current Build Hash 25cc412d1d3c0725a1f2f5b7e4682f6fb40e6d15f7024e96f7afd572e9919535
44yt-dlp is up to date (2021.09.25)
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45...
46```
bbd77068 47**Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
4c1a017e 48
8c6f4daa 49The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore will be closed as `incomplete`.
50
51The templates provided for the Issues, should be completed and **not removed**, this helps aide the resolution of the issue.
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52
53Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
54
55### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
56
8c6f4daa 57We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources.
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58
59So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
60
61- What the problem is
62- How it could be fixed
63- How your proposed solution would look like
64
8c6f4daa 65If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. We often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for us to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
e56190b3 66
8c6f4daa 67For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the **complete** output of yt-dlp when called with the `-Uv` flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
e56190b3 68
8c6f4daa 69If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--write-pages` and upload the `.dump` files you get [somewhere](https://gist.github.com).
f848215d 70
df235dbb 71**Site support requests must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc`. There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. `https://www.youtube.com/`) is *not* an example URL.
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72
73### Are you using the latest version?
74
8c6f4daa 75Before reporting any issue, type `yt-dlp -U`. This should report that you're up-to-date. This goes for feature requests as well.
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76
77### Is the issue already documented?
78
8c6f4daa 79Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2021.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
80
81Additionally, it is also helpful to see if the issue has already been documented in the [youtube-dl issue tracker](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues). If similar issues have already been reported in youtube-dl (but not in our issue tracker), links to them can be included in your issue report here.
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82
83### Why are existing options not enough?
84
8c6f4daa 85Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](README.md#usage-and-options). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
86
87### Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp
88
89There are many changes between youtube-dl and yt-dlp [(changes to default behavior)](README.md#differences-in-default-behavior), and some of the options available have a different behaviour in yt-dlp, or have been removed all together [(list of changes to options)](README.md#deprecated-options). Make sure you have read and understand the differences in the options and how this may impact your downloads before opening an issue.
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90
91### Is there enough context in your bug report?
92
93People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
94
95We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
96
97### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
98
99Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
100
8c6f4daa 101In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, White house podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of yt-dlp that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
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102
103### Is anyone going to need the feature?
104
fdd6e18b 105Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
e56190b3 106
8c6f4daa 107### Is your question about yt-dlp?
108
59a7a13e 109Some bug reports are completely unrelated to yt-dlp and relate to a different, or even the reporter's own, application. Please make sure that you are actually using yt-dlp. If you are using a UI for yt-dlp, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. In general, if you are unable to provide the verbose log, you should not be opening the issue here.
8c6f4daa 110
111If the issue is with `youtube-dl` (the upstream fork of yt-dlp) and not with yt-dlp, the issue should be raised in the youtube-dl project.
112
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113### Are you willing to share account details if needed?
114
115The maintainers and potential contributors of the project often do not have an account for the website you are asking support for. So any developer interested in solving your issue may ask you for account details. It is your personal discression whether you are willing to share the account in order for the developer to try and solve your issue. However, if you are unwilling or unable to provide details, they obviously cannot work on the issue and it cannot be solved unless some developer who both has an account and is willing/able to contribute decides to solve it.
116
117By sharing an account with anyone, you agree to bear all risks associated with it. The maintainers and yt-dlp can't be held responsible for any misuse of the credentials.
118
119While these steps won't necessarily ensure that no misuse of the account takes place, these are still some good practices to follow.
120
59a7a13e 121- Look for people with `Member` (maintainers of the project) or `Contributor` (people who have previously contributed code) tag on their messages.
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122- Change the password before sharing the account to something random (use [this](https://passwordsgenerator.net/) if you don't have a random password generator).
123- Change the password after receiving the account back.
124
8c6f4daa 125
e56190b3 126
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127
128# DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
129
8c6f4daa 130Most users do not need to build yt-dlp and can [download the builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases) or get them via [the other installation methods](README.md#installation).
e56190b3 131
8c6f4daa 132To run yt-dlp as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
e56190b3 133
8c6f4daa 134 python -m yt_dlp
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135
136To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
137
138 python -m unittest discover
139 python test/test_download.py
140 nosetests
060ac762 141 pytest
e56190b3 142
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143See item 6 of [new extractor tutorial](#adding-support-for-a-new-site) for how to run extractor specific test cases.
144
8c6f4daa 145If you want to create a build of yt-dlp yourself, you can follow the instructions [here](README.md#compile).
e56190b3 146
e56190b3 147
8c6f4daa 148## Adding new feature or making overarching changes
e56190b3 149
8c6f4daa 150Before you start writing code for implementing a new feature, open an issue explaining your feature request and atleast one use case. This allows the maintainers to decide whether such a feature is desired for the project in the first place, and will provide an avenue to discuss some implementation details. If you open a pull request for a new feature without discussing with us first, do not be surprised when we ask for large changes to the code, or even reject it outright.
151
0930b11f 152The same applies for changes to the documentation, code style, or overarching changes to the architecture
8c6f4daa 153
154
155## Adding support for a new site
156
157If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](https://www.github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free)**. yt-dlp does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
da665ddc 158
2021b650 159After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
e56190b3 160
8c6f4daa 1611. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/fork)
1621. Check out the source code with:
bff98341 163
8c6f4daa 164 git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/yt-dlp.git
bff98341 165
8c6f4daa 1661. Start a new git branch with
bff98341 167
8c6f4daa 168 cd yt-dlp
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169 git checkout -b yourextractor
170
8c6f4daa 1711. Start with this simple template and save it to `yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
bff98341 172
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173 ```python
174 # coding: utf-8
e56190b3 175 from .common import InfoExtractor
8c6f4daa 176
177
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178 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
179 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
8c6f4daa 180 _TESTS = [{
df235dbb 181 'url': 'https://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
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182 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
183 'info_dict': {
184 'id': '42',
185 'ext': 'mp4',
186 'title': 'Video title goes here',
e7ea724c 187 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
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188 # TODO more properties, either as:
189 # * A value
190 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
191 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
192 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
193 }
8c6f4daa 194 }]
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195
196 def _real_extract(self, url):
197 video_id = self._match_id(url)
198 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
8c6f4daa 199
e56190b3 200 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
ab03c0b4 201 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
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202
203 return {
204 'id': video_id,
205 'title': title,
206 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
ab03c0b4 207 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
8c6f4daa 208 # TODO more properties (see yt_dlp/extractor/common.py)
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209 }
210 ```
8c6f4daa 2111. Add an import in [`yt_dlp/extractor/extractors.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/extractors.py).
2121. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, the tests will then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc. Note that tests with `only_matching` key in test's dict are not counted in. You can also run all the tests in one go with `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_all`
9222c381 2131. Make sure you have atleast one test for your extractor. Even if all videos covered by the extractor are expected to be inaccessible for automated testing, tests should still be added with a `skip` parameter indicating why the particular test is disabled from running.
8c6f4daa 2141. Have a look at [`yt_dlp/extractor/common.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L91-L426). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
2151. Make sure your code follows [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](https://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/index.html#quickstart):
9d9daed4 216
8c6f4daa 217 $ flake8 yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py
9d9daed4 218
e75bb0d6 2191. Make sure your code works under all [Python](https://www.python.org/) versions supported by yt-dlp, namely CPython and PyPy for Python 3.6 and above. Backward compatibility is not required for even older versions of Python.
8c6f4daa 2201. When the tests pass, [add](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files, [commit](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
e56190b3 221
8c6f4daa 222 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/extractors.py
223 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py
224 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add extractor'
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225 $ git push origin yourextractor
226
8c6f4daa 2271. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
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228
229In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
230
b69fd25c 231**Tip:** To test extractors that require login information, create a file `test/local_parameters.json` and add `"usenetrc": true` or your username and password in it:
232```json
233{
234 "username": "your user name",
235 "password": "your password"
236}
237```
8c6f4daa 238
239## yt-dlp coding conventions
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240
241This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
242
8c6f4daa 243Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control and this layout tends to change. As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize dependency on the source's layout and even to make the code foresee potential future changes and be ready for that. This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on minor layout changes thus keeping old yt-dlp versions working. Even though this breakage issue may be easily fixed by a new version of yt-dlp, this could take some time, during which the the extractor will remain broken.
244
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245
246### Mandatory and optional metafields
247
8c6f4daa 248For extraction to work yt-dlp relies on metadata your extractor extracts and provides to yt-dlp expressed by an [information dictionary](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L91-L426) or simply *info dict*. Only the following meta fields in the *info dict* are considered mandatory for a successful extraction process by yt-dlp:
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249
250 - `id` (media identifier)
251 - `title` (media title)
252 - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
253
e75bb0d6 254The aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken. While, in fact, only `id` is technically mandatory, due to compatibility reasons, yt-dlp also treats `title` as mandatory. The extractor is allowed to return the info dict without url or formats in some special cases if it allows the user to extract usefull information with `--ignore-no-formats-error` - Eg: when the video is a live stream that has not started yet.
bff98341 255
8c6f4daa 256[Any field](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#219-L426) apart from the aforementioned ones are considered **optional**. That means that extraction should be **tolerant** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they are always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
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257
258#### Example
259
260Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
261
262```python
263meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
264```
265
266Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
267
268```python
269{
bff98341 270 "summary": "some fancy summary text",
8c6f4daa 271 "user": {
272 "name": "uploader name"
273 },
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274 ...
275}
276```
277
2021b650 278Assume you want to extract `summary` and put it into the resulting info dict as `description`. Since `description` is an optional meta field you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, so that you should extract it like:
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279
280```python
281description = meta.get('summary') # correct
282```
283
284and not like:
285
286```python
287description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
288```
289
bbd77068 290The latter will break extraction process with `KeyError` if `summary` disappears from `meta` at some later time but with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with `description` set to `None` which is perfectly fine (remember `None` is equivalent to the absence of data).
bff98341 291
8c6f4daa 292
293If the data is nested, do not use `.get` chains, but instead make use of the utility functions `try_get` or `traverse_obj`
294
295Considering the above `meta` again, assume you want to extract `["user"]["name"]` and put it in the resulting info dict as `uploader`
296
297```python
298uploader = try_get(meta, lambda x: x['user']['name']) # correct
299```
300or
301```python
302uploader = traverse_obj(meta, ('user', 'name')) # correct
303```
304
305and not like:
306
307```python
308uploader = meta['user']['name'] # incorrect
309```
310or
311```python
312uploader = meta.get('user', {}).get('name') # incorrect
313```
314
315
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316Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
317
318```python
319description = self._search_regex(
320 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
321 webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
322```
323
324With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
325
326You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
327
328```python
329description = self._search_regex(
330 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
331 webpage, 'description', default=None)
332```
333
bbd77068 334On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with `description` set to `None`. That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
8c6f4daa 335
336
337Another thing to remember is not to try to iterate over `None`
338
339Say you extracted a list of thumbnails into `thumbnail_data` using `try_get` and now want to iterate over them
340
341```python
342thumbnail_data = try_get(...)
343thumbnails = [{
344 'url': item['url']
345} for item in thumbnail_data or []] # correct
346```
347
348and not like:
349
350```python
351thumbnail_data = try_get(...)
352thumbnails = [{
353 'url': item['url']
354} for item in thumbnail_data] # incorrect
355```
356
357In the later case, `thumbnail_data` will be `None` if the field was not found and this will cause the loop `for item in thumbnail_data` to raise a fatal error. Using `for item in thumbnail_data or []` avoids this error and results in setting an empty list in `thumbnails` instead.
358
359
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360### Provide fallbacks
361
bbd77068 362When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources. For example if `title` is present in several places, try extracting from at least some of them. This makes it more future-proof in case some of the sources become unavailable.
bff98341 363
8c6f4daa 364
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365#### Example
366
bbd77068 367Say `meta` from the previous example has a `title` and you are about to extract it. Since `title` is a mandatory meta field you should end up with something like:
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368
369```python
370title = meta['title']
371```
372
2c6da7df 373If `title` disappears from `meta` in future due to some changes on the hoster's side the extraction would fail since `title` is mandatory. That's expected.
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374
375Assume that you have some another source you can extract `title` from, for example `og:title` HTML meta of a `webpage`. In this case you can provide a fallback scenario:
376
377```python
378title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
379```
380
381This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`.
382
8c6f4daa 383
d7c3af7a 384### Regular expressions
bff98341 385
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386#### Don't capture groups you don't use
387
388Capturing group must be an indication that it's used somewhere in the code. Any group that is not used must be non capturing.
389
390##### Example
391
392Don't capture id attribute name here since you can't use it for anything anyway.
393
394Correct:
395
396```python
397r'(?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
398```
399
400Incorrect:
401```python
402r'(id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
403```
404
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405#### Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible
406
407When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change, allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on.
8c6f4daa 408
d7c3af7a 409##### Example
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410
411Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
412
413```html
414<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
415```
416
417The code for that task should look similar to:
418
419```python
8c6f4daa 420title = self._search_regex( # correct
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421 r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
422```
423
424Or even better:
425
426```python
8c6f4daa 427title = self._search_regex( # correct
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428 r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
429 webpage, 'title', group='title')
430```
431
bbd77068 432Note how you tolerate potential changes in the `style` attribute's value or switch from using double quotes to single for `class` attribute:
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433
434The code definitely should not look like:
435
436```python
8c6f4daa 437title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
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438 r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
439 webpage, 'title', group='title')
440```
441
8c6f4daa 442or even
443
444```python
445title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
446 r'<span style=".*?" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
447 webpage, 'title', group='title')
448```
449
450Here the presence or absence of other attributes including `style` is irrelevent for the data we need, and so the regex must not depend on it
451
452
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453### Long lines policy
454
8c6f4daa 455There is a soft limit to keep lines of code under 100 characters long. This means it should be respected if possible and if it does not make readability and code maintenance worse. Sometimes, it may be reasonable to go upto 120 characters and sometimes even 80 can be unreadable. Keep in mind that this is not a hard limit and is just one of many tools to make the code more readable
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456
457For example, you should **never** split long string literals like URLs or some other often copied entities over multiple lines to fit this limit:
458
459Correct:
460
461```python
462'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
463```
464
465Incorrect:
466
467```python
468'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list='
469'PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
470```
471
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472### Inline values
473
474Extracting variables is acceptable for reducing code duplication and improving readability of complex expressions. However, you should avoid extracting variables used only once and moving them to opposite parts of the extractor file, which makes reading the linear flow difficult.
475
476#### Example
477
478Correct:
479
480```python
481title = self._html_search_regex(r'<title>([^<]+)</title>', webpage, 'title')
482```
483
484Incorrect:
485
486```python
487TITLE_RE = r'<title>([^<]+)</title>'
488# ...some lines of code...
489title = self._html_search_regex(TITLE_RE, webpage, 'title')
490```
491
8c6f4daa 492
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493### Collapse fallbacks
494
495Multiple fallback values can quickly become unwieldy. Collapse multiple fallback values into a single expression via a list of patterns.
496
497#### Example
498
499Good:
500
501```python
502description = self._html_search_meta(
503 ['og:description', 'description', 'twitter:description'],
504 webpage, 'description', default=None)
505```
506
507Unwieldy:
508
509```python
510description = (
511 self._og_search_description(webpage, default=None)
512 or self._html_search_meta('description', webpage, default=None)
513 or self._html_search_meta('twitter:description', webpage, default=None))
514```
515
516Methods supporting list of patterns are: `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex`, `_og_search_property`, `_html_search_meta`.
517
8c6f4daa 518
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519### Trailing parentheses
520
521Always move trailing parentheses after the last argument.
522
8c6f4daa 523Note that this *does not* apply to braces `}` or square brackets `]` both of which should closed be in a new line
524
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525#### Example
526
527Correct:
528
529```python
530 lambda x: x['ResultSet']['Result'][0]['VideoUrlSet']['VideoUrl'],
531 list)
532```
533
534Incorrect:
535
536```python
537 lambda x: x['ResultSet']['Result'][0]['VideoUrlSet']['VideoUrl'],
538 list,
539)
540```
541
8c6f4daa 542
e71be6ee 543### Use convenience conversion and parsing functions
bff98341 544
8c6f4daa 545Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from [`yt_dlp/utils.py`](yt_dlp/utils.py): `int_or_none`, `float_or_none`. Use them for string to number conversions as well.
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546
547Use `url_or_none` for safe URL processing.
548
8c6f4daa 549Use `try_get`, `dict_get` and `traverse_obj` for safe metadata extraction from parsed JSON.
532782ad 550
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551Use `unified_strdate` for uniform `upload_date` or any `YYYYMMDD` meta field extraction, `unified_timestamp` for uniform `timestamp` extraction, `parse_filesize` for `filesize` extraction, `parse_count` for count meta fields extraction, `parse_resolution`, `parse_duration` for `duration` extraction, `parse_age_limit` for `age_limit` extraction.
552
8c6f4daa 553Explore [`yt_dlp/utils.py`](yt_dlp/utils.py) for more useful convenience functions.
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554
555#### More examples
556
557##### Safely extract optional description from parsed JSON
558```python
8c6f4daa 559description = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 'summary'), expected_type=str)
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560```
561
562##### Safely extract more optional metadata
563```python
8c6f4daa 564video = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 0), default={}, expected_type=dict)
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565description = video.get('summary')
566duration = float_or_none(video.get('durationMs'), scale=1000)
567view_count = int_or_none(video.get('views'))
568```
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571
572
573# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
574See [README.md#embedding-yt-dlp](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp) for instructions on how to embed yt-dlp in another Python program