YouTube Comment Scraper

Deprecation Notice

This package has been deprecated and no longer works.

About

Command line utility for scraping YouTube comments.

If you prefer a simple-to-use online solution, please go to http://ytcomments.klostermann.ca.

Installation

1. Download and install Node.js (at least v6.11.4): https://nodejs.org/
2. In a terminal window, type npm install -g youtube-comment-scraper-cli
3. The program can be run from the command line with youtube-comment-scraper <VideoID>
4. Read the rest of the docs or check out youtube-comment-scraper --help

Usage

Command

$ youtube-comment-scraper [options] <VideoID>

Tutorial

For more detailed instructions suitable for beginners take a look at the NetLab Tutorial.

Where's the VideoId?

It's part of the video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<VideoID>.

Examples:

Options

All command line options are optional (d'oh), except for the VideoID parameter.

Options explained

Format

-f --format <format>

The comments can be formatted as either JSON or CSV data. Defaults to JSON if not specified.

Examples

youtube-comment-scraper -f csv <VideoID>

youtube-comment-scraper --format json <VideoID>

Output File

-o --outputFile <outputFile>

The comments can be written directly to a file. In that case they will not be written to stdout (the terminal window). If you want both file and stdout output use the --stdout flag in addition to --outputFile.

Examples

youtube-comment-scraper -o ./path/to/some/file.json <VideoID>

youtube-comment-scraper --outputFile some-file.csv --stdout --format csv <VideoID>

Stdout

-d --stdout

By default comments are always written to stdout (even without the --stdout flag). However, when using --outputFile, they will only be written to the file. If you want output to both, use --stdout.

Examples

youtube-comment-scraper -d <VideoID>

youtube-comment-scraper --outputFile ./some/file --stdout <VideoID>

Collapse Replies

-c --collapseReplies

By default replies to comments are kept nested under that comment. If --collapseReplies is set, replies will be treated the same as regular comments. An additional field is added to replies replyTo wich contains the ID of the comment to which a reply belongs.

Examples

youtube-comment-scraper -c <VideoID>

youtube-comment-scraper --collapseReplies --format csv <VideoID>

Stream

-s --stream

By default the program will scrape all comments without outputting any of them until the scrape is complete. When the --stream flag is set, comments are written one at a time as soon as they are scraped, while still maintaining the original order of comments (newest first). This works for both the JSON and CSV format.

Examples

youtube-comment-scraper -s <VideoID>

youtube-comment-scraper --stream --format csv <VideoID>

youtube-comment-scraper --stream --format csv --outputFile some-file.csv <VideoID>

youtube-comment-scraper --stream <VideoID> > json-processing-tool

Version

-V --version

Output the current version of the program.

Examples

youtube-comment-scraper -V

youtube-comment-scraper --version

Help

-h --help

Output usage help.

Examples

youtube-comment-scraper -h

youtube-comment-scraper --help