ytptube/README.md

YTPTube

Web GUI for yt-dlp with playlist & channel support.

YTPTube Features.

• Multi-downloads support.
• Random beautiful background. can be disabled.
• Can Handle live streams.
• Scheduler to queue channels or playlists to be downloaded automatically at a specified time.
• Send notification to targets based on selected events.
• Support per link yt-dlp JSON config or cli options, cookies & output format.
• Queue multiple URLs separated by comma.
• A built in video player that can play any video file regardless of the format. With support for sidecar external subtitles.
• New POST /api/history endpoint that allow one or multiple links to be sent at the same time.
• New GET /api/history/add?url=http://.. endpoint that allow to add single item via GET request.
• Modern frontend UI.
• SQLite as database backend.
• Basic Authentication support.
• Support for curl_cffi, see yt-dlp documentation
• Support for both advanced and basic mode for WebUI.
• Bundled tools in container: curl-cffi, ffmpeg, ffprobe, aria2, rtmpdump, mkvtoolsnix, mp4box.

Recommended basic ytdlp.json file settings

Your /config/ytdlp.json config should include the following basic options for optimal working conditions.

{
  "windowsfilenames": true,
  "continue_dl": true,
  "live_from_start": true,
  "format_sort": [ "codec:avc:m4a" ],
}

Note

Note, the format_sort, forces YouTube to use x264 instead of vp9 codec, you can ignore it if you want. i prefer the media in x264.

Run using docker command

docker run -d --rm --name ytptube -p 8081:8081 -v ./config:/config:rw -v ./downloads:/downloads:rw ghcr.io/arabcoders/ytptube:latest

Using compose file

The following is an example of a compose.yaml file that can be used to run YTPTube.

services:
  ytptube:
    user: "1000:1000" # change this to your user id and group id
    image: ghcr.io/arabcoders/ytptube:latest
    container_name: ytptube
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8081:8081"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config:rw
      - ./downloads:/downloads:rw
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp

$ mkdir {config,downloads} && docker-compose -f compose.yaml up -d

Then you can access the WebUI at http://localhost:8081.

Environment variables

Certain configuration values can be set via environment variables, using the -e parameter on the docker command line, or the environment: section in compose.yaml file.

Environment Variable	Description	Default
YTP_OUTPUT_TEMPLATE	The template for the filenames of the downloaded videos	%(title)s.%(ext)s
YTP_DEFAULT_PRESET	The default preset to use for the download	default
YTP_INSTANCE_TITLE	The title of the instance	empty string
YTP_FILE_LOGGING	Whether to log to file	false
YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH	Path to where the downloads will be saved	/downloads
YTP_MAX_WORKERS	How many works to use for downloads	1
YTP_AUTH_USERNAME	Username for basic authentication	empty string
YTP_AUTH_PASSWORD	Password for basic authentication	empty string
YTP_CONSOLE_ENABLED	Whether to enable the console	false
YTP_REMOVE_FILES	Remove the actual file when clicking the remove button	false
YTP_CONFIG_PATH	Path to where the queue persistence files will be saved	/config
YTP_TEMP_PATH	Path where intermediary download files will be saved	/tmp
YTP_TEMP_KEEP	Whether to keep the Individual video temp directory or remove it	false
YTP_KEEP_ARCHIVE	Keep history of downloaded videos	true
YTP_YTDL_DEBUG	Whether to turn debug logging for the internal yt-dlp package	false
YTP_ALLOW_MANIFESTLESS	Allow yt-dlp to download unprocessed streams	false
YTP_HOST	Which IP address to bind to	0.0.0.0
YTP_PORT	Which port to bind to	8081
YTP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level	info
YTP_STREAMER_VCODEC	The video codec to use for in-browser streaming	libx264
YTP_STREAMER_ACODEC	The audio codec to use for in-browser streaming	aac
YTP_ACCESS_LOG	Whether to log access to the web server	true
YTP_DEBUG	Whether to turn on debug mode	false
YTP_DEBUGPY_PORT	The port to use for the debugpy debugger	5678
YTP_SOCKET_TIMEOUT	The timeout for the yt-dlp socket connection variable	30
YTP_EXTRACT_INFO_TIMEOUT	The timeout for extracting video information	70
YTP_DB_FILE	The path to the SQLite database file	{config_path}/ytptube.db
YTP_MANUAL_ARCHIVE	The path to the manual archive file	{config_path}/manual_archive.log
YTP_UI_UPDATE_TITLE	Whether to update the title of the page with the current stats	true
YTP_PIP_PACKAGES	A space separated list of pip packages to install	empty string
YTP_PIP_IGNORE_UPDATES	Do not update the custom pip packages	false
YTP_BASIC_MODE	Whether to run WebUI in basic mode	false

Browser extensions & bookmarklets

Simple bookmarklet

javascript:(() => { const url = "https://ytptube.example.org"; const preset = "default"; const mUrl = new URL(url); mUrl.pathname = "/api/history"; fetch(mUrl, { method: "POST", headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" }, body: JSON.stringify({ url: document.location.href, preset: preset }) }).then(res => alert(res.ok ? "URL sent!" : "Failed to send URL.")); })()

Change the the variable url and preset variables to match your YTPTube instance and preset name.

Browser stores

• For Firefox via Firefox Store
• For Chrome/Chromium Browsers via Chrome Store

iOS Shortcuts

You can download Add To YTPTube shortcut and use it to send links to your YTPTube instance. You have to edit the shortcut and replace the following:

• https://ytp.example.org with your YTPTube instance.
• username:password replace this with your own username & password or leave it empty if you don't have authentication enabled.

This shortcut is powerful, as it's allow you to select your preset on the fly pulled directly from your instance. Combined with the new and powerful presets system, you could add presets for specific websites that need cookies, and use that preset to download directly from your iOS device.

Advanced iOS Shortcut

This shortcut YTPTube To Media is more advanced, as it's parses the yt-dlp output and attempt to download the media directly to your iOS device. It doesn't always work, but it's a good starting point for those who want to download media directly to their iOS device. We provide no support for this use case other than the shortcut itself. this shortcut missing support for parsing the http_headers, it's only parse the cookies.

Run behind reverse proxy.

It's advisable to run YTPTube behind a reverse proxy, if authentication and/or HTTPS support are required.

Nginx http server

location /ytptube/ {
  proxy_pass http://ytptube:8081;
  proxy_http_version 1.1;
  proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
  proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
  proxy_set_header Host $host;
}

Note

The extra proxy_set_header directives are there to make web socket connection work.

Caddy http server

The following example Caddyfile gets a reverse proxy going behind caddy.

example.com {
  route /ytptube/* {
    uri strip_prefix ytptube
    reverse_proxy ytptube:8081
  }
}

Updating yt-dlp

The engine which powers the actual video downloads in YTPTube is yt-dlp. Since video sites regularly change their layouts, frequent updates of yt-dlp are required to keep up.

There's an automatic nightly task YTPTube which looks for a new version of yt-dlp, and if one exists, it will be open PR on the repository. The PR will be reviewed and merged by the maintainer.

Troubleshooting and submitting issues

Before asking a question or submitting an issue for YTPTube, Please remember that YTPTube is only a UI for yt-dlp. Any issues you might be experiencing with authentication to video websites, postprocessing, permissions, other yt-dlp options configurations which seem not to work, or anything else that concerns the workings of the underlying yt-dlp library, need not be opened on the YTPTube project. In order to debug and troubleshoot them, it's advised to try using the yt-dlp binary directly first, bypassing the UI, and once that is working, importing the options that worked for you into yt-dlp options file.

In order to test with the yt-dlp command directly, you can either download it and run it locally, or for a better simulation of its actual conditions, you can run it within the YTPTube container itself.

Via HTTP

If you have enabled the web terminal via YTP_CONSOLE_ENABLED environment variable, simply go to Terminal button in your navbar and directly use the yt-dlp command, the interface is jailed to the yt-dlp binary you can't access the anything else.

Via CLI

Assuming your YTPTube container is called ytptube, run the following on your docker host to get a shell inside the container:

docker exec -ti ytptube bash
cd /downloads
yt-dlp ....

Once there, you can use the yt-dlp command freely.

Building and running locally

Important

Make sure you have nodejs and Python 3.11+ installed.

Follow these steps to build and run YTPTube locally:

cd ytptube/ui
# install Vue and build the UI
npm install
npm run build
# install python dependencies
cd ..
# you might not have venv module installed, if so, install it via `pip3 install venv` or your package manager.
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip3 install pipenv
pipenv install
# run
python app/main.py

A Docker image can be built locally (it will build the UI too):

docker build . -t ytptube

ytdlp.json file

The config/ytdlp.json, is a json file which can be used to alter the default yt-dlp config settings globally.

We recommend not use this file for options that aren't truly global, everything that can be done via the ytdlp.json file can be done via a preset, which only effects the download that uses it. Example of good basic ytdlp.json file.

{
  "windowsfilenames": true,
  "continue_dl": true,
  "live_from_start": true,
  "format_sort": [ "codec:avc:m4a" ],
}

Everything else can be done via the presets, and it's more flexible and easier to manage. You can convert your own yt-dlp command arguments into a preset using the box found in the presets add page. For reference, The options can be found at yt-dlp YoutubeDL.py file. And for the postprocessors at yt-dlp postprocessor.

Authentication

To enable basic authentication, set the YTP_AUTH_USERNAME and YTP_AUTH_PASSWORD environment variables. And restart the container. This will prompt the user to enter the username and password before accessing the web interface/API. As this is a simple basic authentication, if your browser doesn't show the prompt, you can use the following URL

http://username:password@your_ytptube_url:port

Basic mode

What does the basic mode do? it hides the the following features from the WebUI.

Header

It disables everything except the theme switcher and reload button.

Add form

• The form will always be visible and un-collapsible.
• Everything except the URL and Add button will be disabled and hidden.
• The preset will be the default preset, which can be specified via YTP_DEFAULT_PRESET environment variable.
• The output template will be the default template which can be specified via YTP_OUTPUT_TEMPLATE environment variable.
• The download path will be the default download path which can be specified via YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH environment variable.

Queue & History

Disables the Information button.

API Documentation

For API endpoints, please refer to the API documentation. it's somewhat outdated, but it's a good starting point.

How to autoload yt-dlp plugins?

Loading yt-dlp plugin in YTPTube is is quite simple, we already have everything setup for you. simply, create a folder inside the /config directory named yt-dlp so, the path will be /config/yt-dlp. then follow yt-dlp plugins docs to know how to install the plugins.

Once you have installed the plugins, restart the container and the plugins will be auto-loaded on demand.

The origin of the project.

The project first started as a fork meTube, since then it has been completely rewritten and redesigned. The original project was a great starting point, but it didn't align with my vision for the project and what i wanted to achieve with it.

Disclaimer

This project is not affiliated with YouTube, yt-dlp, or any other service. It's a personal project that was created to make downloading videos from the internet easier. It's not intended to be used for piracy or any other illegal activities.

Project plan

Let me start by saying, i am primarily PHP developer, and i am not familiar with the best practices of python or frontend design.

There are no project plan, or design document for this project. I started this project as a hobby project, and i am learning as i go. What you see is the result of me learning while creating this tool. It might not be the best but i like it.

While i value your feedback, remember this project is a hobby project, and i may not have the time to implement all the features you might want. I am open to PRs, and i will do my best to review them and merge them if they fit my vision for the project.

Social contact

If you have short or quick questions, you are free to join my discord server and ask the question. keep in mind it's solo project, as such it might take me a bit of time to reply.

Donation

If you feel like donating and appreciate my work, you can do so by donating to children charity. For example Make-A-Wish.