Create an Angular YouTube Video Search App with RxJS

Building a YouTube Video Search Application with Angular and RxJS

Getting Started

In this tutorial, we’ll create a single-page application that retrieves a list of videos from YouTube based on a search query using Angular and RxJS. To follow along, you’ll need a basic understanding of these tools. We’ll cover the core concepts and features of Angular and RxJS as we build a real-world application.

Tools and Prerequisites

We’ll be using:

• TypeScript, a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript and provides type capabilities to JavaScript code
• Angular, a JavaScript framework that allows you to create efficient and sophisticated single-page applications
• RxJS, a library for composing asynchronous and event-based programs by using observable sequences

To build this project locally, you’ll need to have Node installed and Angular CLI v6.0.0.

Project Setup

Before we start writing code, let’s conceptualize the features to be implemented in the application and determine the necessary components we’ll need. We’ll keep it simple and focus on the core components:

• A search-input component for handling user input
• A search-list component for rendering the list of videos
• A search-container component that renders both the search-input and search-list components
• A search service that communicates with the YouTube search API

Setting Up the YouTube Search API

To gain access to the YouTube search API, you’ll need to register for an API token. Follow these steps:

1. Create a Google account if you don’t already have one.
2. Head over to the Google developer console to create a new project.
3. Enable the YouTube Data API v3 and create a new API key.

Building the Application

1. Set up the Search Service

Create a new module called shared and a service called search.service. In the search.service.ts file, import the necessary files and define the getVideos method that receives a search query string and returns a response from the YouTube search API.

2. Add a Video Interface File

Create a new interface file called search.interface.ts in the models folder under the shared module. Define the properties each video object retrieved from the YouTube search API should contain.

3. Set up the Stateful Component

Create a new component called search-container. This component will directly communicate with the search service, sending over the user input and then passing the response to the search-list component to render.

4. Develop the Stateless Components

Create two stateless components: search-input and search-list. The search-input component will contain everything related to handling user input, while the search-list component will receive a list of videos from the parent component and render it in the view.

5. Building the User Interface

Set up the stylesheet using Semantic-UI and create the necessary HTML files for each component.

Testing the Application

Run the application using the Angular CLI and open it in your browser. You should now have a working YouTube video search application built with Angular and RxJS.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we walked through how to use Angular and RxJS to build a YouTube video search application. We covered the core concepts and features of these tools and implemented them to build a simple yet powerful application. With this knowledge, you can take on more complex projects and features with the YouTube API.