14 replies to this topic

[ptpasharon]

Using Tubepres Pro. In one case we are using the following:

TubePressPro::getHtmlForShortcode('searchResultsRestrictedToUser="'.$user.'" resultsPerPage="4" mode="tag" tagValue="'.$slug.'"');

We want to use an actual Youtube tag for the tag, however this does not work. We are trying to target specific videos from our Youtube account via a tag but instead it only works if the word is in the Title of the youtube video. It appears that TagValue is actual just a keyword and does not specifically look at the tag.

 

Can someone confirm that the above code and shortcode for tagValue reads the actual Youtube tag?

[Chadwickhugh]

Perhaps this is why I'm not getting any results with mine as well.  All my videos are appropriately tagged, but tubepress doesn't return any results.

[Chadwickhugh]

Yep, I just checked it.  Changed my tag value to a known word in a video title and sure enough it displays the video....

[ptpasharon]

Yeah it looks like the YouTube API does not actually provide tag searching support as explained at the top of this page:

 

https://developers.g...eyword_browsing

 

"tag" in youtube api speak actually refers to a keyword search.

 

 

 

This section explains how to retrieve a feed of all of the videos that are in a particular category or that are associated with a particular keyword. (YouTube uses the term "tag" to identify a keyword relevant to a video.) 

[Chadwickhugh]

Well that sure kinda defeats the purpose of tags doesn't it.

[brandon]

Hi ptpasharon and chadwickhugh,

 

The TubePress tag mode will search all video metadata for videos matching the term. Video metadata includes titles, keywords, descriptions, authors' usernames, and categories.

 

Hope that answers your questions.

 

Thanks!

[ptpasharon]

I have done extensive testing and when you use 'searchResultsRestrictedToUser' and mode=tag the tagValue is only searching the video title. It does not search the description. Here is a shortcode example which you can try for yourself:

[tubepress searchResultsRestrictedToUser=ptpamedia mode=tag tagValue=Actifry]

As you can see, in this video: http : //www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2MQA9XQlQU the word Actifry is in the description and yet it doesn't come up via the above shortcode.

 

Any thoughts?

[brandon]

ptpasharon,

 

As you can see from the below debug output, Tubepress is actually finding 6 videos that match the above tagValue, however it is unable to display them:

 

 

[2013-10-08 15:27:08] [DEBUG] YouTube Video Provider: Reported total result count is 6 video(s)
[2013-10-08 15:27:08] [DEBUG] YouTube Video Provider: Now attempting to build 0 video(s) from raw feed

 

This can be caused by a few different things.  The first is that the videos are set to not be embedable.  Another possibility is that they are geographically restricted, and so may not be available in the location that your server is.

 

Let us know.

 

Thanks!

[ptpasharon]

Thank you for your reply. However that is not the issue because the same shortcode works as long as there tag is in the TITLE of the video as follows:

[tubepress searchResultsRestrictedToUser=ptpamedia mode=tag tagValue=WPIX]

So that video shows up when you put a tag that appears in the title. The issue is that words from the description are not being queried.

[brandon]

ptpasharon,

 

As you can see from the below debug output, TubePress is actually finding 9 videos, although only returning 2.

 

 

[2013-10-08 16:29:44] [DEBUG] YouTube Video Provider: Reported total result count is 9 video(s)
[2013-10-08 16:29:44] [DEBUG] YouTube Video Provider: Now attempting to build 2 video(s) from raw feed

 

 

I will, however, pass your concerns on to our Developers for them to take a look at the issue.

 

Thanks!

[ptpasharon]

Thanks. Yes my point was that the issue is not the embedding permissions. I am sure if you do some testing you will find that the tagValue parameter only returns videos with that tag in the title and not the description when searchResultsRestrictedToUser is set. I look forward to your response.

[brandon]

ptpasharon.

 

Thank you and we are looking into this

[eric]

Hi folks,

 

I spent some time this evening trying to reproduce this issue and I'm so far unable to do so.

 

I have done extensive testing and when you use 'searchResultsRestrictedToUser' and mode=tag the tagValue is only searching the video title. It does not search the description. Here is a shortcode example which you can try for yourself:

[tubepress searchResultsRestrictedToUser=ptpamedia mode=tag tagValue=Actifry]

As you can see, in this video: http : //www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2MQA9XQlQU the word Actifry is in the description and yet it doesn't come up via the above shortcode.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Testing this exact shortcode, the video k2MQA9XQlQU shows up first in the results (screenshot). Are you still experiencing the issue?

 

I tested a few other accounts and was still unable to reproduce the problem. e.g. the shortcode

[tubepress mode="tag" tagValue="pixar" searchResultsRestrictedToUser="Disney"]

shows lots of videos with "pixar" in the description and/or tags but not in the title.

 

It's possible (even likely) that YouTube was quietly messing around with the internals of their API and temporarily introduced a bug. If you are still experiencing this problem, please report back here with an example and we'll be glad to investigate.

 

Thanks!

[ptpasharon]

Thanks Eric. Are you saying you are using this exact shortcode?

[tubepress searchResultsRestrictedToUser=ptpamedia mode=tag tagValue=Actifry]

Can you think of any reason why it would work for you and not on our site? Here is a test page with the exact shortcode and it returns no videos.

 

http://ptpa.com/tubepress-test/

[eric]

Thanks Eric. Are you saying you are using this exact shortcode?

[tubepress searchResultsRestrictedToUser=ptpamedia mode=tag tagValue=Actifry]

Can you think of any reason why it would work for you and not on our site? Here is a test page with the exact shortcode and it returns no videos.

 

http://ptpa.com/tubepress-test/

 

Thanks for posting that link to a test page. Turns out that I was seeing a different result because I was using a different sort order for the videos.

 

From what I can see, this is definitely a bug on YouTube's end. I've filed a bug report with them - please "star" that issue to both draw their attention to the problem and track updates.

 

 

Workaround.

 

You can configure TubePress to use the "random" sort order which, due to some underlying technical reasons, will actually cause the videos to come back in order of relevance (which is actually somewhat suitable for a search-based gallery).

 

In WordPress, you can set the sort order to "random" via WP Admin > Settings > TubePress > Feed > Order videos by. Or you can set it via shortcode:

[tubepress orderBy="random"]

Please give that a try and let me know how it works for you? I hope that it will hold things over for everyone until we get a response from the YouTube folks.