YouTube WordPress plugin – video import

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Easily add YouTube videos to your WordPress website with WP YouTube Hub, the YouTube video importer plugin for WordPress

The plugin is a YouTube video importer and it gives you the possibility to automatically create WordPress posts from YouTube searches, channels, user uploads or playlists.

The posts created by the plugin will have complete details filled automatically: post title, post content, category, tags, featured image, publish date and video embed.

Additionally, it can be customized to fill any custom fields needed to display your videos and create the perfect video blog.

Watch demo video on YouTube

Save time by eliminating tedious, repetitive copy/paste actions

The plugin will take care of inserting video content into the right places. From post title and content to publishing date, featured image, category and tags, everything is taken care of.

Concentrate on creating and finding high quality YouTube videos instead of managing video posts in WordPress

By being able to automatically import videos from YouTube channels, user uploads or playlists you can dedicate more time to finding or creating awesome videos that you can publish on your website.

Bring your WordPress video website to a whole new level with all the new content it can add

By allowing you to combine multiple YouTube sources that you can import from, you are not able to create a website that covers a specific subject.

Import large quantities of YouTube videos

Having the ability to automatically import videos at intervals and in quantities that you specify, you can quickly create video content on your website without a problem.

Synchronize YouTube channels with your WordPress website

When new videos are added to YouTube channels or playlists, or a user that you follow uploads a new video, the plugin will import it automatically and keep your website up to date.

Take the pain out of organizing the video posts

Import videos into categories that you choose or allow the plugin to import YouTube categories and place your videos into them. On top of that you can also import and assign the video tags from YouTube.

User tested and constantly improved

Having a few years on the market and being used by more than a thousand official users, the plugin is constantly improved based on the suggestions received during all this time.
Support comes from no other than its author so if you need help with anything just leave a comment and you’ll surely receive assistance.

WordPress video importer plugin - YouTube Hub documentation

WP YouTube importer notable features

Compatible with various premium WordPress themes

The plugin is compatible by default with several premium WordPress video themes: Avada, True Mag, NewsTube, GoodWork, SimpleMag, Sahifa, Betube, Enfold and more. Besides these themes it can be easily made compatible with any WordPress theme by just using a few filters and actions.

WP YouTube Hub - WP theme compatibility tutorial

Bulk video import

WP YouTube Hub gives you the possibility to import as many as 50 videos at once with a single click of a button. You can even edit the contents of each video before importing them to make sure that only what you actually need is getting into the post content of the videos you import.

Automatic scheduled imports

Want to import videos from YouTube channels as soon as they are made available after publishing on YouTube? Want to keep your video blog in sync with playlists or user uploads? No problem! Just create a few automatically importing playlists and you’re done! The plugin will take care of everything else so that you can take care of more important things.

Customize the content that gets imported

Choose to import categories but not tags. Or the other way around. Or even both. Choose which image format sohuld get set as posts featured image. Import titles and descriptions or skip them. Import the excerpt. Set any custom field automatically. The choice is yours! No matter what kind of website you run, there’s always a solution to have perfect video posts.

Import as any registered WordPress post type

By default, the plugin imports videos as post type video but that’s not written in stone. Using some of the plugin filters, you can import videos as any registered WordPress post type.

Display imported videos in playlists

Create playlists on your website and display them using shortcodes or widgets. Simple and efficient!

Author support

The most important feature is support. We’ve all been there, looking for an option or some piece of code that gives you headaches. Whenever you encounter a problem, just ask for help and you’ll receive it ASAP!

Community love

CodeCanyon YouTube video import user reviews

Great job to the author he made this working with detube, also add a auto importer etc. A great plugin whats got from me the 5 stars! Johrans

This YouTube importer is hands down with the last update the best one available. Works flawlessly with Avada/DeTube and other themes. In reality with minor adjustments it could be used with any custom theme. If anyone ever has any import issues (because youtube itself) its simple as going into automatic import and clicking reset and the channel that is giving you issues, within a min the vids will be up. It is also the only youtube importer I have seen that actually does avada and detube videoposter/featured/thumb properly, as the others fail beyond the standard theme itself, ie This will provide ajax thumbs for ajax calls as all the other fail importers dont, and will leave you hurting if you are hoping for grids and more. Anyways A++ the last update works perfect. netnewsledger

You, sir, are awesome. Your plugin now becomes the perfect youtube auto importer. Theres only two I can find on the market, and yours is way better than the free wordpress one. It has all the functionality I need, and I really appreciate your swift work and adjustments. You have my gratitude! Thanks:) mrslippy

AWESOME plugin, EXCELLENT support – this plugin is exactly what I wanted! :)

I rated it with 5 stars – but I wanted to rate it with 10 stars, if it was possible :)

Thank you for this great plugin, cboiangiu – also thank you for all your fast and friendly help offered (even if it was just about my user-error)! :) OliBoli

Incredible support as incredible plugin! Thanks! orlac

Easy plugin, have never seen anything like it! eskamedia

Features

  • uses YouTube data API v3
  • compatibility with WordPress themes TrueMag, Avada, Goodwork, SimpleMag, Sahifa, Wave, DeTube, BeeTube, Twenty Thirteen, Twenty Fourteen and Video (plugin will import YouTube videos as posts that are compatible with the theme);
  • automatic video import from YouTube playlists or user playlists;
  • automatic/manual import of YouTube video image as post Featured Image;
  • responsive video and playlist design;
  • SEO friendly – YouTube video imported as posts and all content is displayed into page;
  • support for HTML5 player;
  • multiple players/playlists into the same page;
  • latest videos widget;
  • compatible with iPad/iPhone;
  • embed single videos or playlists into posts/pages using visual interface;
  • automatic plugin update (requires purchase code);
  • bulk video imports from YouTube playlists, user uploads or search queries;
  • video player embeded using only WordPress files to maximize compatibility;
  • touch friendly;
  • video imports can be used as posts in WordPress front-end;
  • external CSS;
  • playlist toggle in/out of view;
  • all interface developed using WordPress styling;
  • no erros or notices.

General options

  • import videos as posts compatible with WordPress themes TrueMag, Avada, Goodwork, SimpleMag, Sahifa, Wave, DeTube, BeeTube, Twenty Thirteen, Twenty Fourteen, Video (theme must be installed and active for this option);
  • import videos as regular posts that have the same options as custom post type implemented by the plugin (a good alternative to theme compatibility);
  • display videos in front-end as video posts or set them private and only display them using shortcodes;
  • option to also import video categories from YouTube and assign them to videos;
  • option to import video image as post Featured Image;
  • import video titles or skip them;
  • import descriptions as video description or excerpt or do not import them at all;
  • trim descriptions based on a given keyword/sentence and make all URLs in description clickable;
  • optional bulk imports status;
  • general player settings for: player size, video position in front-end video post, volume, autoplay, player controls, fullscreen, player theme, annotations and other;
  • options for individual videos: player size, video position in front-end video post, volume, autoplay, player controls, fullscreen, player theme, annotations and other.

Installation

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Changelog

Full changelog can be accessed here: WP YouTube video post changelog.

1.4.7

  • Solved single video import bug that was importing categories even if global option for importing categories was off;
  • Solved single video import bug that was causing PHP error when importing categories;
  • Plugin loads full JS script for embedding video when WordPress SCRIPT_DEBUG is on;
  • Added filter “cbc_video_embed_filter_priority” that allows filtering of priority for the automatic embed made by the plugin. – This is useful when using membership plugins that protect the content;
  • Solved a bug that was preventing posts from being updated to pending review when check for post status was on.

1.4.6

  • Solved a bug that stored video details in database as CBC_Video object instead of array;
  • Modified class CBC_Ajax to use composition instead of inheritance;
  • Introduced data cache class for video details retrieved from WP custom field.

1.4.4

  • Added plugin options class for better options management;
  • Improved speed by making additional changes to the plugin.

1.4.3

  • Solved a page loading time on archive pages containing video posts that was caused in rare circumstances by requests made to YouTube API to refresh video information;
  • Solved pagination issue under “My YouTube” plugin page;
  • Implemented code timers that measure how long it takes for certain tasks to be accomplished by the plugin (to see reports you need the debugging plugin).

1.4.2

  • Solved an automatic import bug that was causing the importer to stop when automatic import was set to import only newly added videos;
  • Solved various filter/action plugin parameters that were returning an object instead of an array for the video details and this caused PHP errors to appear;
  • Solved an automatic import error that appeared when using the date restriction functionality and was causing the importer to stop importing;
  • Solved a bug that appeared when using the video schema;
  • Implemented filter ‘cbc_js_embed’ that can be used to modify all embeds made by the plugin to place embed iframe directly into the post content instead of using plugin’s JavaScript embedding.

1.4.1

  • Solves PHP error “Fatal error: Can’t use method return value in write context in…” that is triggered if using a PHP version lower than 5.5.

1.4.0

  • Introduced function `cbc_get_class_instance()` that returns main class object reference (`CBC_YouTube_Videos`);
  • Introduced new method of retrieving video details from post using method `CBC_YouTube_Videos->get_post_video_data( $post_id )` which returns an object of type CBC_Video;
  • Introduced new class `CBC_Video` which handles all video details from a given post;
  • Added etag field to automatic import post types;
  • Added extra links to plugin entry in Plugins page (Settings, Documentation and First time installation);
  • Added PHP version warning if PHP version is less than 7.0;
  • Solved a bug that wasn’t resetting the countdown if current automatic import was deleted;
  • Introduced new method `get_post_video_data($post)` in class `CBC_Video_Post_Type` that returns video details from post as `CBC_Video` object;
  • Solved a PHP notice that was triggered when saving a video widget without setting the widget cache on;
  • Added new function “cbc_video_embed_html()” that can be used in WP Loop to embed attached YouTube video, if available;
  • Solved a bug that was causing automatic imports to not import newest videos from channels and user uploads if option to import only newly added videos was on. This bug is triggered by YouTube API which, for channels and user uploads, returns the results ordered by “relevance” instead of publishing date. This causes feeds to be returned ordered in a more or less random order which in turn prevents the plugin from determining which videos were imported lately;
  • Added prioritization for automatic imports which allows to set an automatic import to run for up to 5 times consecutively before resuming the queue;
  • Added several links to plugin entry in WP admin Plugins page;
  • Added welcome screen that is presented after plugin is activated;
  • Added a friendly notice in plugin pages if server is running PHP version < 7; – Added new filter ‘cbc_video_post_embed_below_content’ that allow control of video embed position right before displaying the video in video posts; – Added new filter ‘cbc_video_post_embed_options’ that allows changing of all embed options right before displaying the video embed in video posts.

1.3.1

  • Solved an error when checking automatic playlist when editing and the playlist ID field was left empty;
  • Added friendly plugin review reminder;
  • Solved a rare error that was disrupting shortcode setup modal window if third party plugin/theme used filter “pre_get_posts”;
  • Added REST API support;
  • Added documentation links and extra information to plugin help page.

1.3

  • Renamed plugin to YouTube Hub.
  • Modified plugin widgets initialization to happen only once due to bug triggered by third party plugins that were implementing do_action(‘widgets_init’) and were causing the initialization to happen more than once;
  • Implemented optional plugin widgets caching for 5 minutes in transients to speed up widgets display;
  • Solved a bug that was importing videos with closed comments and ping status under certain circumstances;
  • Solved a bug that was issuing errors related to YouTube video comment count;
  • Implemented filter “cbc_allow_auto_import” that can disable automatic imports from running. To disable automatic imports entirely and for good: add_filter( ‘cbc_allow_auto_import’, ‘__return_false’ );
  • Plugin uses YouTube OAuth instead of Server Key when both present (future plugin version won’t use Server Keys anymore, for now OAuth is optional);
  • Solved an OAuth bug that was asking to grant permission at a given time interval instead of refreshing access automatically;
  • Added option to import YouTube video tags as post tags;
  • Added taxonomy “video_tag” for plugin post type “video”;
  • Added a new, more flexible mechanism for making WP themes compatible with the plugin;
  • Complete rewrite of automatic import process.

1.2.5

  • Added automatic import debug messages that can be used to log every import made by the plugin;
  • Created a debug plugin that will register all automatic imports into a log for later reference;
  • Modified default volume value from 30 to 100.

1.2.4

  • Solved a widget bug that was preventing the video thumbnails from being displayed;
  • Solved a rare error that was issuing notices when likes/dislikes counts were missing;
  • Solved a tabs back-end error on plugin Settings page;
  • Updated back-end scripts to WP 4+ jQuery version.

1.2.3

  • Plugin compatible with WordPress 4.3 (scheduled for release on August 18th, 2015);
  • Added channel title to video details array;
  • Modified API query URL forming from using PHP http_build_query() to WP add_query_arg();
  • Added WordPress theme NewsTube default compatibility;
  • Added filter ‘cbc_cpt_with_front’ that can be used to modify “with_front” rewrite argument for custom post type ‘video’;
  • Added filter ‘cbc_taxonomy_with_front’ that can be used to modify “with_front” rewrite argument for custom post type taxonomy ‘videos’;
  • Video embedding by plugin is done exclusively using YouTube Iframe API (no more Flash embedding).

1.2.2

  • Implemented 3 new actions on bulk imports (both manual and automatic) and thumbnails bulk import that allow removal of third party filters that make the import process take more time. By using this, EWW Image optimizer is prevented from optimizing images when doing bulk imports since the process takes a lot of time;
  • Solved an interface bug related to the Select All checkbox when doing manual bulk imports;
  • Added video publish date on manual bulk import video list;
  • Implemented daily YouTube quota calculator;
  • New option to display used YouTube API quota units into the plugin pages;
  • New option and functionality to run automatic imports on page load instead of making a background request (useful on some installations where background requests are not allowed);
  • Option to grant access to your YouTube accunt and instantly set up and import your playlists, channels or subscriptions;
  • Improved plugin Settings page links and redirects to automatically open desired tab set as hash on URL;
  • New admin menu plugin page that allows you to query your YouTube account and displays playlists and channels for the user authenticated by OAuth;
  • New option that allows to unpublish automatic import playlists if YouTube returns error when query is made to API.

1.2.1

  • Solves admin bug “Fatal error: Class ‘CBC_AJAX_Actions’ not found” that may happen on some installations.

1.2

  • Automatic import playlists import/export file for easy transition between installations;
  • Updated to use YouTube API 3;
  • New option in plugin Settings page to make regular checks for imported videos on YouTube to see if the video was removed of doesn’t allow embedding;
  • Modified manual bulk import interface for better video import management;
  • More consistent, user friendly automatic import process;
  • Allow video imports from YouTube channels.

1.1.2.1.

  • New filter “ccb_allow_video_import”. Allows to prevent certain videos from importing based on different criteria at your choice.
    Params:
    – allow (bool);
    – video (array);
    – post_type (string);
    – theme_import (false/array).
  • New filter “cbc_video_post_status”. Allows changing the post status to anything else when importing videos.
    Params:
    – status (string);
    – video (array);
    – theme_import (false/array).
  • New field in video details “app_control”. Usually, if this field contains any value, most likely the video isn’t public.
  • Embeds are SSL compatible.
  • Solved shortcode visual interface bug that wasn’t filtering by category under certain circumstances.
  • Solved bug that wasn’t importing maxres image even if the setting was on.
  • Added default compatibility with ThemeForest theme BeeTube.
  • Solved bug that was creating double posts on certain installations.

1.1.1

  • Solves bug related to YouTube publish date importing;
  • Solves bug under Automatic Update that was disrupting the loop when importing multiple playlists;
  • Adds new stats functionality that saves besides rating and views the likes/dislikes number.

1.1.0

  • New option to import thumbnails on demand (at the time they are needed to be displayed);
  • New option to import YouTube thumbnail size as needed by your design;
  • New option to import thumbnail maximum size if available;
  • Redesigned plugin Settings page in tabs for better options management;
  • Added JavaScript timer to automatic import page that displays delays between playlist imports in real time;
  • Solved Yoast Video SEO compatibility bug that was preventing videos from being displayed in sitemaps;
  • Modified YouTube feed from JSONC to JSON.

1.0.9.2

  • Solved bug: when doing auto import as plugin custom post type, categories were not getting set.

1.0.9.1

  • Solved bug: when importing as regular post show the category taxonomy instead of custom post type videos taxonomy;
  • Solved bug: when doing auto import using WP Cron as regular post type and the update was triggered by refreshing one of the admin pages, the plugin menu was assigned to regular post type;
  • Solved bug: when making single import as compatible WP theme post, any extra custom fields needed by the theme to display the video were not set.

1.0.9

  • Compatible with theme TrueMag;
  • Draft imports keep YouTube publish date when setting to do so is on in Settings page;
  • YouTube videos can be imported as regular posts that have the same functionality as custom post type video and will follow all settings from Settings page (a good alternative to replace theme compatibility);
  • New Help & Info page under plugin WP admin menu;
  • New option in Settings page to import videos as regular post type;
  • New option in Settings page to prevent auto embedding of videos if links to videos are found in video description;
  • New option in Settings page to make all valid URLs clickable.

1.0.8

  • Video post type taxonomy widget ( aka video categories widget );
  • Custom post type archive set by default along with all supported fields (custom meta, comments, etc. );
  • Default compatibility with Yoast Video SEO plugin;
  • Added action cbc_post_insert on single video import for compatibility with themes;
  • Recent Videos widget can now filter by video category;
  • New Settings page option to include custom post type video on your blog homepage;
  • New Settings page option to include video microdata for SEO purposes;
  • New Settings page option to truncate descriptions on import by providing a string as a delimiter;
  • New Settings page option to include custom post type video into main feed;
  • Default compatibility with themes: Twenty Thirteen, Twenty Fourteen, Sahifa, Wave and Video;
  • New theme compatibility class that encapsulates all functionality.

1.0.7.1

  • Better error management on YouTube data API calls;
  • Solves errors in case of wrong YouTube API key;
  • Modified WP theme compatibility that will automatically check for parent theme compatibility in case the active theme is a child theme.

1.0.7

  • Solved image import bug that prevented YouTube images from being imported in Media Gallery when import was made from front-end;
  • New option when creating automatic import playlist to not reiterate the whole playlist every time but only once and after that import only newly added videos;
  • New option in Settings page to make automatic imports by running a server CRON JOB instead of the regular WordPress CRON JOB that depends on how much traffic your website receives;
  • Solved a bug that was preventing manual imports when automatic imports were running (the 2 overlapped and manual import was not importing);
  • Modified theme compatibility verification to detect parent theme only for the default themes (deTube, Avada, GoodWork and SimpleMag);
  • Solved bug that was not setting any author on posts when automatic import was made when an anonymous user was visiting the page.

1.0.6

  • New option in plugin Settings to display more than 10 results per page when doing manual import;
  • New option in plugin Settings to enter YouTube API key (avoids some API error in case you ran into these issues). Please note that as long as you don’t have any problem using the plugin you can leave this field empty;
  • New option for Automatic import when importing user uploads to specify a date and import only videos published after that date;
  • New functionality for Automatic update that reiterates the playlist entries once reaching the finish of the playlist (this is default, no action needed from your side);
  • Automatic import does not set an orderby parameter anymore so you should get freshest results always (discussed on plugin forums);
  • Solved bug that was showing related videos after a video finished playing withouy taking into account if the user has actually set not to display related videos;
  • Solved bug that was not saving the import category when a new import was created;
  • Added WordPress style Add New button on Automatic import playlist edit;
  • New action cbc_before_post_insert that runs just before creating a new video post. Useful in theme compatibility;
  • New filters: (1) cbc_video_post_title – you can format the title of any newly inserted video before creating the post, (2) cbc_video_post_content – you can format the post content of any newly created video, (3) cbc_video_post_date – you can modify the publishing date of newly created videos;

1.0.5.2

  • Translation for Swedish;
  • Solved theme compatibility bug that was not detecting compatible theme if using child theme.

1.0.5.1

  • Translations ready;
  • Translation for Romanian;
  • Solved bug for iframe embeds that was not passing the autoplay parameter;
  • Solved theme compatibility bug that was not detecting compatible theme if theme folder was changed from default (ie. detube) to another name.

1.0.5

  • New option in Settings page to import video image as post featured image;
  • New option in Settings page to modify the slug for custom post type video and taxonomy;
  • On post/custom post editing, new option in Featured Image meta panel to import the video image from YouTube (available only for posts created by the plugin);
  • When displaying videos on custom post type pages, all video data needed by JavaScript is now passed by element attribute data-X (previously was stored in HTML comment inside element);
  • All videos page (for custom post type) has new bulk action: Import thumbnails. When selected it will automatically import for all selected videos the image from YouTube and set it as Featured Image;
  • In automatic playlists table, new column for displaying the category videos are imported in (if set);
  • Compatibility with WordPresas themes Goodwork and SimpleMag;
  • Solved bug that was preventing running more than 5 playlists for automatic update;
  • Solved bug that was setting incorrect video size when importing videos in themes that use embed codes.

1.0.4

  • New option on manual and automatic bulk import to import as a different user other than the one currently logged in;
  • New options under Settings page to import YouTube date of publishing as post publishing date.

1.0.3

  • Compatibility with DeTube WordPress theme – the plugin gives the option to create videos into normal post types that are compatible with DeTube;
  • Compatibility with Avada WordPress theme;
  • Automatic imports from YouTube playlists and user playlists;
  • Option to show videos on all pages (like archives for example) instead of only single pages;
  • Improved player script for the HTML5 player to work on themes that use the HTML5 player API;
  • Import single posts directly into DeTube or Avada.

1.0.2

  • Solved bug that was preventing videos from loading on iPad/iPhone on certain ocasions;
  • Updated playlist theme to better respond to responsive designs;
  • Improved responsive design by resizing both width and height of player.

1.0.1

  • Solved permalink problem that was causing video post type to lead to 404 page unless WordPress permalinks were saved again.
  • Recent videos widget can display list of videos as video playlist or normal list of links.
  • Categories select box under video bulk import and shortcode are hidden when no categories were created.
  • New functionality that allows bulk-import into an already existing category.

1.0

  • Initial release.