The plugin can be downloaded from our official Downloads directory or from Joomla Extensions Directory and installs as any other regular Joomla plugin. After installation you can find it among "system" plugins as System - YouTube Importer

This plugin periodically checks for the availability of new videos in the YouTube channels configured, and imports them as new content items in the associated categories according to your settings. The plugin action is triggered by front-end user activity. More visitors you have, more precise the timing is.

The settings of the plugin are separated in two tabs: the default "Plugin" tab and in the "Advanced" tab.

The Plugin tab

In the default tab there are the following options:

A section of 5 options grouping the following fields:

  • YouTube channel
  • Category

By default only one group is shown, the subsequent groups are revealed as the YouTube channel option is filled. These groups are reprezenting the pairs of YouTube channels and the content gategories where the videos found in the channel are imported. For the first field you need to specify the channel ID the system should check to find new YouTube videos. The channel ID is a string like 'UC9LQwHZoucFT94I2h6JOcjw' and can be found easily from the URL of the channel (generally accessible from clicking on the channel logo below each video): 'https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9LQwHZoucFT94I2h6JOcjw'. The second field is a classic Joomla category selector, wich defailts to category with ID=2 - the Uncategorized category in a default Joomla install

Check interval

How often should the system check to see if new YouTube videos are available? Recommended setting: daily, available options:

  • "Hourly" - once per hour. If the Debug option in the Advanced tab is on, and this setting is selected, the plugin will run every two minutes to facilitate a quick checkup of settings.
  • "Daily"- the recommended default
  • "Every other day" - once per 48 hours
  • "Weekly" - once per week
  • "Monthly" - one per month

Videos each run

How much videos to grab on each run.Integrating a huge number of videos at one time can be resource intensive, so it makes sense to queue videos at a speed that doesn't tax your server too much. Videos will still be downloaded and integrated; but at a slower rate.

Publish

Automatically publish or not the newly created articles after import

Unpublish

Unpublish after how much time. The periods are calculated relative to the time of import. Default is "never", available options are:

  • "never"
  • "One day"
  • "Two days"
  • "A week"
  • "Two weeks"
  • "A month"
  • "Two months"
  • "Half year"
  • "A year"

This option is not yet operational.

The Advanced tab

Embed YouTube video

Should be the embed code inserted in the newly created article? This option inserts a responsive IFRAME to hold the embed code from Youtube.

If this setting is set to NO, instead the embed code only a link to the video will be inserted in Intro Text. This can be used to generate later the embed code via a Joomla content plugin, like OSE YouTube or similar.

Import description

Should the system automatically import the YouTube description for each video and add it to the article main text?

Add link

Should the system add a link to the original YouTube video at the end of the article?

Introduction characters

Number of characters to include in the intro text - the introduction is cut off at the closest full word. Not yet implemented.

Introduction delimiter

Phrase to put at the end of the introduction where the text is cut. Default is .... Not yet implemented.

Debug

Turn debug on to record data to logfile. The logfile, named plg_system_youtubeimporter.php will be placed in the default Joomla log directory.

Super User Emails

A comma separated list of the email addresses which will receive the update notification emails. The addresses in the list MUST belong to existing users of your site who have the Super User privilege. If none of the listed emails belongs to Super Users, or if it's left blank, all Super Users of this site will receive the update notification email.

You can personalize the email content by editing the following language variables:

  • PLG_SYSTEM_YOUTUBEIMPORTER_EMAIL_SUBJECT
  • PLG_SYSTEM_YOUTUBEIMPORTER_EMAIL_BODY

In the email body you can use the following placeholders - these will be filled up by the correct values during the mail sending process:

  • [NUMVIDEOS] Number of batch processed videos
  • [SITENAME] Site name, as set in Global Configuration.
  • [URL] URL of the site's frontend page.
  • [TIMESTAMP] The timestamp when the batch processing was executed.
  • \n Newline character. Use it to start a new line in the email.