Reporting a possible bug on Youtube Api commentThreads.update
Name of API affected: CommentThreads: update
Issue summary: CommentThreads: update When calling this api to update the topLevelComment returned by CommentThreads.list, I got a 400 error. I was using this API in an internal tool to allow me respond to comments. It was working fine for the last months... and in the last days (~2016-11-07) with no changes on any code on my side, the API started to return a 400 error. I have all my internal comment systems halted right now as I could not figure out how to fix this. Every thing I tried and tested brings me to the 400 error and the message below.
"While this can be a transient error, it usually indicates that the requests input is invalid."
Even using the API console, I got the same errror! My bet? This is a transient error that I hope Google can fix.
Steps to reproduce issue:
- Retrieve "heldForReview" threads using CommentThreads.list
- Try to update the returned topLevelComment changing ["topLevelComment"]["snippet"]["textOriginal"] = "some text". Optionally, change the "moderationStatus" to "published". The error is the same.
- This behaviour can be easily spotted using the Python API samples, specifically the file comment_threads.py from https://github.com/youtube/api-samples/blob/master/python/comment_threads.py
Expected output: The top level comment from Thread should become visible (after setting the moderationStatus to published) and have the "some text" as the first child comment as its answer.
Actual results:
{
"error": {
"errors": [
{
"domain": "youtube.commentThread",
"reason": "processingFailure",
"message": "The API server failed to successfully process the request. While this can be a transient error, it usually indicates that the requests input is invalid. Check the structure of the \u003ccode\u003ecommentThread\u003c/code\u003e resource in the request body to ensure that it is valid.",
"locationType": "other",
"location": "body"
}
],
"code": 400,
"message": "The API server failed to successfully process the request. While this can be a transient error, it usually indicates that the requests input is invalid. Check the structure of the \u003ccode\u003ecommentThread\u003c/code\u003e resource in the request body to ensure that it is valid."
}
}
Notes: I am providing a sample code below.
#!/usr/bin/python
# Usage example:
# python comment_threads.py --channelid='<channel_id>' --videoid='<video_id>' --text='<text>'
import httplib2
import os
import sys
from apiclient.discovery import build_from_document
from apiclient.errors import HttpError
from oauth2client.client import flow_from_clientsecrets
from oauth2client.file import Storage
from oauth2client.tools import argparser, run_flow
# The CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE variable specifies the name of a file that contains
# the OAuth 2.0 information for this application, including its client_id and
# client_secret. You can acquire an OAuth 2.0 client ID and client secret from
# the {{ Google Cloud Console }} at
# {{ https://cloud.google.com/console }}.
# Please ensure that you have enabled the YouTube Data API for your project.
# For more information about using OAuth2 to access the YouTube Data API, see:
# https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/guides/authentication
# For more information about the client_secrets.json file format, see:
# https://developers.google.com/api-client-library/python/guide/aaa_client_secrets
CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE = "client_secrets.json"
# This OAuth 2.0 access scope allows for full read/write access to the
# authenticated user's account and requires requests to use an SSL connection.
YOUTUBE_READ_WRITE_SSL_SCOPE = "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl"
YOUTUBE_API_SERVICE_NAME = "youtube"
YOUTUBE_API_VERSION = "v3"
# This variable defines a message to display if the CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE is
# missing.
MISSING_CLIENT_SECRETS_MESSAGE = """
WARNING: Please configure OAuth 2.0
To make this sample run you will need to populate the client_secrets.json file
found at:
%s
with information from the APIs Console
https://console.developers.google.com
For more information about the client_secrets.json file format, please visit:
https://developers.google.com/api-client-library/python/guide/aaa_client_secrets
""" % os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE))
# Authorize the request and store authorization credentials.
def get_authenticated_service(args):
flow = flow_from_clientsecrets(CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE, scope=YOUTUBE_READ_WRITE_SSL_SCOPE,message=MISSING_CLIENT_SECRETS_MESSAGE)
storage = Storage("%s-oauth2.json" % sys.argv[0])
credentials = storage.get()
if credentials is None or credentials.invalid:
credentials = run_flow(flow, storage, args)
# Trusted testers can download this discovery document from the developers page
# and it should be in the same directory with the code.
with open("youtube-v3-discoverydocument.json", "r") as f:
doc = f.read()
return build_from_document(doc, http=credentials.authorize(httplib2.Http()))
# Call the API's commentThreads.list method to list the existing comments.
def get_comments(youtube, video_id, channel_id):
results = youtube.commentThreads().list(
part="snippet",
videoId=video_id,
channelId=channel_id,
# ONLY FILTER COMMENTS THAT ARE HELD FOR REVIEW
# THOSE COMMENTS ONLY HAVE ONE TOP LEVEL COMMENT
moderationStatus="heldForReview",
textFormat="plainText").execute()
for item in results["items"]:
comment = item["snippet"]["topLevelComment"]
author = comment["snippet"]["authorDisplayName"]
text = comment["snippet"]["textDisplay"]
print "Comment by %s: %s" % (author, text)
return results["items"]
# Call the API's commentThreads.insert method to insert a comment.
def insert_comment(youtube, channel_id, video_id, text):
insert_result = youtube.commentThreads().insert(
part="snippet",
body=dict(
snippet=dict(
channelId=channel_id,
videoId=video_id,
topLevelComment=dict(
snippet=dict(
textOriginal=text
)
)
)
)
).execute()
comment = insert_result["snippet"]["topLevelComment"]
author = comment["snippet"]["authorDisplayName"]
text = comment["snippet"]["textDisplay"]
print "Inserted comment for %s: %s" % (author, text)
# Call the API's commentThreads.update method to update an existing comment.
def update_comment(youtube, comment):
comment["snippet"]["topLevelComment"]["snippet"]["textOriginal"] = 'updated'
update_result = youtube.commentThreads().update(
part="snippet",
body=comment
).execute()
comment = update_result["snippet"]["topLevelComment"]
author = comment["snippet"]["authorDisplayName"]
text = comment["snippet"]["textDisplay"]
print "Updated comment for %s: %s" % (author, text)
if __name__ == "__main__":
# The "channelid" option specifies the YouTube channel ID that uniquely
# identifies the channel for which the comment will be inserted.
argparser.add_argument("--channelid",
help="Required; ID for channel for which the comment will be inserted.")
# The "videoid" option specifies the YouTube video ID that uniquely
# identifies the video for which the comment will be inserted.
argparser.add_argument("--videoid",
help="Required; ID for video for which the comment will be inserted.")
# The "text" option specifies the text that will be used as comment.
argparser.add_argument("--text", help="Required; text that will be used as comment.")
args = argparser.parse_args()
if not args.channelid:
exit("Please specify channelid using the --channelid= parameter.")
if not args.videoid:
exit("Please specify videoid using the --videoid= parameter.")
if not args.text:
exit("Please specify text using the --text= parameter.")
youtube = get_authenticated_service(args)
try:
# All the available methods are used in sequence just for the sake of an example.
# Insert channel comment by omitting videoId
# REMOVED AS IT IS NOT RELEVANT TO THE ERRRO REPORT. insert_comment(youtube, args.channelid, None, args.text)
# Insert video comment
# REMOVED AS IT IS NOT RELEVANT TO THE ERRRO REPORT. insert_comment(youtube, args.channelid, args.videoid, args.text)
video_comments = get_comments(youtube, args.videoid, None)
if video_comments:
update_comment(youtube, video_comments[0])
except HttpError, e:
print "An HTTP error %d occurred:\n%s" % (e.resp.status, e.content)
else:
print "Inserted, listed and updated top-level comments."
Of course, you will need your authorization files inside the same directory.
