YouTube Connector for Microsoft Fabric

Read / write YouTube data inside your app, perform many Youtube operations without coding using easy to use high performance API Connector for YouTube

In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate YouTube data in Microsoft Fabric without coding. We will use high-performance YouTube Connector to easily connect to YouTube and then access the data inside Microsoft Fabric.

Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that!

Download Documentation

YouTube Connector for Microsoft Fabric is based on ZappySys API Driver which is part of ODBC PowerPack. It is a collection of high-performance ODBC drivers that enable you to integrate data in SQL Server, SSIS, a programming language, or any other ODBC-compatible application. ODBC PowerPack supports various file formats, sources and destinations, including REST/SOAP API, SFTP/FTP, storage services, and plain files, to mention a few.

Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from YouTube using Microsoft Fabric we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from YouTube. We will later be able to read data using Microsoft Fabric. Perform these steps:

Download and install ODBC PowerPack.
Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):
Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver:

ZappySys API Driver
- Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
- Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.
When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "YouTube" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "YouTube" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

YoutubeDSN

YouTube

Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

API Key

YouTube authentication

This walkthrough will help you create an API Key which you will be able to use in all requests and authenticate accordingly.

Go to Google API Console
From the Project Dropdown (usually found at the top bar) click Select Project
On Project Popup click CREATE PROJECT
Once project is created you can click Select Project to switch the context (You can click on Notification link or Choose from Top Dropdown)
Click ENABLE APIs AND SERVICES
Now we need to Enable three APIs one by one (YouTube Data API, YouTube Analytics API, YouTube Reporting API).
Search YouTube Data API. Select and click ENABLE
Search YouTube Analytics API. Select and click ENABLE
Search YouTube Reporting API. Select and click ENABLE
Go to back to main screen of Google API Console
Click OAuth Consent Screen Tab. Enter necessary details and Save.
Click Credentials Tab
Click CREATE CREDENTIALS (some where in topbar) and select API key option.
In the popup, copy API Key from the field "Your API key", close this window, and use it in the UI configuration, "key" field

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to API Key [Http]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Finally, hit OK button:

YoutubeDSN

YouTube

API Key [Http]

https://youtube.googleapis.com/youtube/v3

Required Parameters
key	Fill-in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	403\|429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

User Account

YouTube authentication

To register a custom app, perform the following steps (detailed steps found in the help link at the end)

Go to Google API Console
From the Project Dropdown (usually found at the top bar) click Select Project
On Project Popup click CREATE PROJECT
Once project is created you can click Select Project to switch the context (You can click on Notification link or Choose from Top Dropdown)
Click ENABLE APIs AND SERVICES
Now we need to Enable three APIs one by one (YouTube Data API, YouTube Analytics API, YouTube Reporting API).
Search YouTube Data API. Select and click ENABLE
Search YouTube Analytics API. Select and click ENABLE
Search YouTube Reporting API. Select and click ENABLE
Go to back to main screen of Google API Console
Click OAuth Consent Screen Tab. Enter necessary details and Save.
Click Credentials Tab
Click CREATE CREDENTIALS (some where in topbar) and select OAuth Client ID option.
When prompted Select Application Type as Desktop App and click Create to receive your ClientID and Secret. Later on you can use this information now to configure Connection.
Go to OAuth Consent Screen tab. Under Publishing Status click PUBLISH APP to ensure your refresh token doesnt expire often. If you planning to use App for Private use then do not have to worry about Verification Status after Publish.

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to User Account [OAuth]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Press Generate Token button to generate the tokens.
Finally, hit OK button:

YoutubeDSN

YouTube

User Account [OAuth]

https://youtube.googleapis.com/youtube/v3

Optional Parameters
ClientId
ClientSecret
Scope	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtubepartner https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtubepartner-channel-audit https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics-monetary.readonly https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics.readonly
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	403\|429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True
Redirect URL (Only for Web App)

Service Account (Using .json OR .p12 key file)

YouTube authentication

Use these steps to authenticate as service account rather than Google / GSuite User. Learn more about service account here

Basically to call Google API as Service account we need to perform following steps listed in 3 sections (Detailed steps found in the help link at the end)

Create Project

First thing is create a Project so we can call Google API. Skip this section if you already have Project (Go to next section)

Go to Google API Console
From the Project Dropdown (usually found at the top bar) click Select Project
On Project Popup click CREATE PROJECT
Once project is created you can click Select Project to switch the context (You can click on Notification link or Choose from Top Dropdown)
Click ENABLE APIs AND SERVICES
Now we need to Enable three APIs one by one (YouTube Data API, YouTube Analytics API, YouTube Reporting API)
Search YouTube Data API. Select and click ENABLE
Search YouTube Analytics API. Select and click ENABLE
Search YouTube Reporting API. Select and click ENABLE

Create Service Account

Once Project is created and APIs are enabled we can now create a service account under that project. Service account has its ID which looks like some email ID (not to confuse with Google /Gmail email ID)

Go to Create Service Account
From the Project Dropdown (usually found at the top bar) click Select Project
Enter Service account name and Service account description
For Role, do not select anything for now and Click Continue and then click Done. Next we will create Key.

Create Key

Once service account is created we need to create key file (i.e. credentials).

In the Cloud Console, click the email address for the service account that you created.
Click Keys.
Click Add key, then click Create new key.
Click Create and select P12 format. A P12 key file is downloaded to your computer. We will use this file in our API connection.
Click Close.
Now you may use downloaded *.p12 key file as secret file and Service Account Email as Client ID (e.g. some-service-account-name@your-project-id.iam.gserviceaccount.com ).

Add Permission

Now last thing is give read/write permission to Service Account. Basically you can create or open Google Sheet and add the Service Account as an editor to it as below.

Copy the email address of your service account we created in previous step (its usually like this some-service-account-name@your-project-id.iam.gserviceaccount.com).
Create or select an existing Google Sheet.
Navigate to Sheet for which you like to give read/write access to Service Account.
Click on the Share button in the top right, and add the email address of the service account as an editor. Here is how to share file(s) with specific people. Juse share with Service Account (use Service Account Email found on previous section)

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to Service Account (Using *.json OR *.p12 key file) [OAuth]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Finally, hit OK button:

YoutubeDSN

YouTube

Service Account (Using *.json OR *.p12 key file) [OAuth]

https://youtube.googleapis.com/youtube/v3

Required Parameters
Service Account Email	Fill-in the parameter...
Service Account Private Key Path (i.e. *.p12)	Fill-in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
Scope	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtubepartner https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtubepartner-channel-audit https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics-monetary.readonly https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics.readonly
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	403\|429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

ZappySys API Driver - YouTube

Read / write YouTube data inside your app, perform many Youtube operations without coding using easy to use high performance API Connector for YouTube

YoutubeDSN
Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in Microsoft Fabric to retrieve data from YouTube. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.
```
SELECT * FROM MyVideos
```
Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the YouTube API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.
Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in Microsoft Fabric:
ZappySys API Driver - YouTube

Read / write YouTube data inside your app, perform many Youtube operations without coding using easy to use high performance API Connector for YouTube

YoutubeDSN
```
SELECT * FROM MyVideos
```
You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.

A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the YouTube API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in YouTube servers).
Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Installing Microsoft On-premises data gateway

To access and read YouTube data in Microsoft Fabric, you will have to download and install Microsoft On-premises data gateway.

There are two types of On-premises data gateways:

Standard Mode
Personal Mode

Standard Mode supports Power BI and other Microsoft Data Fabric services. It fits perfectly for Enterprise solutions as it installs as a Windows Service and also supports Direct Query feature.

Personal Mode, on the other hand, can be configured faster, but is designed more for home users (you cannot install it as a Windows Service and it does not support DirectQuery). You will find a detailed comparison in the link above.

We recommend to go with Personal Mode for a quick POC solution, but use Standard Mode in production environment. You can download On-premises data gateway straight from Microsoft Data Fabric or Power BI web app:

Download Power BI On-premises data gateway

Standard mode

Follow these steps how to configure On-premises data gateway in Standard mode:

Install On-premises data gateway (standard mode) and sign-in:

Use the same email address you use when logging in into your account.
Register a new gateway (or migrate an existing one):
If you are creating a new gateway, name your gateway, enter a Recovery key, and click Configure button:
Once Microsoft gateway is installed, check if it registered correctly:
- Go back to Microsoft Fabric portal
- Click Gear icon on top-right
- And then hit Manage connections and gateways menu item
Continue by clicking On-premises data gateway tab and select Standard mode gateways option from the dropdown:
If your gateway is not listed, the registration may have failed. To resolve this:
- Wait a couple of minutes and refresh Microsoft Fabric portal page
- Restart the machine where On-premises data gateway is installed
- Check firewall settings
Done!

Now we are ready to read data in Microsoft Fabric.

Personal mode

Follow this single step to configure On-premises data gateway in Personal mode:

Install On-premises data gateway (personal mode) and sign-in:

Use the same email address you use when logging in into your account.
Once Microsoft gateway is installed, check if it registered correctly:
- Go back to Microsoft Fabric portal
- Click Gear icon on top-right
- And then hit Manage connections and gateways menu item
Continue by clicking On-premises data gateway tab and select Personal mode option from the dropdown:
If your gateway is not listed, the registration may have failed. To resolve this:
- Wait a couple of minutes and refresh Microsoft Fabric portal page
- Restart the machine where On-premises data gateway is installed
- Check firewall settings
Done!

Now we are ready to read data in Microsoft Fabric.

Loading YouTube data into Microsoft Fabric

We created ODBC data source and installed Microsoft On-premises data gateway, and we are ready to load the data into Microsoft Fabric.

Let's roll!

Log in to the Microsoft Fabric Portal.
Select an existing Workspace or create a new one by clicking New workspace (make sure you are in Home section):
Inside your workspace, click the New item button in the toolbar to start creating your data pipeline:
In the item selection window, choose Copy job to open the data ingestion wizard:
In the Choose data source screen, search for odbc and select the Odbc source:
Then enter your ODBC connection string (DSN=YoutubeDSN) and select MyGateway from the Data gateway dropdown we configured in the previous step:

DSN=YoutubeDSN

DSN=YoutubeDSN
Select the table(s) and preview the data you wish to copy from YouTube. Once done, click Next:

DSN=YoutubeDSN
Choose your Data Destination. You can create a New Fabric item (like a Lakehouse or Warehouse) or select an existing one:

As an example, we will be using Lakehouse as destination type in this article
Choose Full copy to load all data or Incremental copy if you want to load only changed data in subsequent runs:
Review the Column and Table mappings section:
On the summary screen, review your settings. You can optionally enable Run on schedule. Click Save + Run to execute the job:

DSN=YoutubeDSN

DSN=YoutubeDSN
The job will enter the queue. Monitor the Status column to see the progress:

DSN=YoutubeDSN
Wait for the status to change to Succeeded. Your YouTube data is now successfully integrated into Microsoft Fabric!
Let's go to our Lakehouse MyLakehouse and double-check if it's true:
It's true, done!

Centralized data access via Data Gateway

In some situations, you may need to provide YouTube data access to multiple users or services. Configuring the data source on a Data Gateway creates a single, centralized connection point for this purpose.

This configuration provides two primary advantages:

Centralized data access
The data source is configured once on the gateway, eliminating the need to set it up individually on each user's machine or application. This significantly simplifies the management process.
Centralized access control
Since all connections route through the gateway, access can be governed or revoked from a single location for all users.

	Data Gateway	Local ODBC data source
Simple configuration
Installation	Single machine	Per machine
Connectivity	Local and remote	Local only
Connections limit	Limited by License	Unlimited
Central data access
Central access control
More flexible cost

If you need any of these requirements, you will have to create a data source in Data Gateway to connect to YouTube, and to create an ODBC data source to connect to Data Gateway in Microsoft Fabric.

Let's not wait and get going!

Creating YouTube data source in Gateway

In this section we will create a data source for YouTube in Data Gateway. Let's follow these steps to accomplish that:

Search for gateway in Windows Start Menu and open ZappySys Data Gateway Configuration:
Go to Users tab and follow these steps to add a Data Gateway user:
- Click Add button
- In Login field enter username, e.g., john
- Then enter a Password
- Check Is Administrator checkbox
- Click OK to save
Now we are ready to add a data source:
- Click Add button
- Give Datasource a name (have it handy for later)
- Then select Native - ZappySys API Driver
- Finally, click OK
YoutubeDSN

ZappySys API Driver
When the ZappySys API Driver configuration window opens, configure the Data Source the same way you configured it in ODBC Data Sources (64-bit), in the beginning of this article.
Very important step. Now, after creating or modifying the data source make sure you:
- Click the Save button to persist your changes.
- Hit Yes, once asked if you want to restart the Data Gateway service.
This will ensure all changes are properly applied:

Skipping this step may result in the new settings not taking effect and, therefore you will not be able to connect to the data source.

Creating ODBC data source for Data Gateway

In this part we will create ODBC data source to connect to Data Gateway from Microsoft Fabric. To achieve that, let's perform these steps:

Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):
Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server:

ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server

If you don't see ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server driver in the list, choose a similar version driver.
Then set a Name of the data source (e.g. Gateway) and the address of the Data Gateway:

GatewayDSN

localhost,5000

Make sure you separate the hostname and port with a comma, e.g. localhost,5000.
Proceed with authentication part:
- Select SQL Server authentication
- In Login ID field enter the user name you used in Data Gateway, e.g., john
- Set Password to the one you configured in Data Gateway
Then set the default database property to YoutubeDSN (the one we used in Data Gateway):

YoutubeDSN
Continue by checking Trust server certificate option:
Once you do that, test the connection:
If connection is successful, everything is good:
Done!

We are ready to move to the final step. Let's do it!

Accessing data in Microsoft Fabric via Data Gateway

Finally, we are ready to read data from YouTube in Microsoft Fabric via Data Gateway. Follow these final steps:

Go back to Microsoft Fabric.
In the Choose data source screen, search for odbc and select the Odbc source:
Then enter your ODBC connection string (DSN=GatewayDSN) and select MyGateway from the Data gateway dropdown we configured in the previous step:

DSN=GatewayDSN

DSN=GatewayDSN
Read the data the same way we discussed at the beginning of this article.
That's it!

Now you can connect to YouTube data in Microsoft Fabric via the Data Gateway.

If you are asked for authentication details, use Database authentication or SQL Authentication option and enter credentials you used when configuring Data Gateway, e.g. john and your password.