Configuring and Indexing a YouTube Source

A source defines a set of configuration parameters for a specific YouTube channel.

To configure and index a YouTube source

1. On the Coveo server, access the Administration Tool (see Opening the Administration Tool).

2. Select Index > Sources and Collections.

3. In the Collections section:

   Select an existing collection in which you want to add the new source.

   OR

   Click Add to create a new collection (see Adding a Collection).

4. In the Sources section, click Add.

   The Add Source page that appears is organized in three sections.

5. In the General Settings section of the Add Source page:

   

   1. Enter the appropriate value for the following required parameters:

      Name

      Enter a descriptive name of your choice for the connector source.

      Example: The Company YouTube Channel

      Source Type

      Select the connector used by this source. In this case, select YouTube.

      Note: If you do not see YouTube, your environment does not meet the requirements (see YouTube Connector Requirements).

      Addresses

      Enter the URL of one or more YouTube user or brand channels, or playlists.

      Example:

      • https://youtube.com/channel/channelID

      • https://youtube.com/user/username

      • https://youtube.com/playlist?list=playlistID

      Notes:

      • When you enter a URL pointing to a specific user who manages more than one channels, the connector indexes all videos under these channels.

      • CES 7.0.8541+ (September 2016) The connector supports playlist URLs.

      Fields

      Select the field set that you created for your YouTube source (see YouTube Connector Deployment Overview).

      Refresh Schedule

      Time interval at which the index is automatically refreshed to keep the index content up-to-date. By default, the Every day option instructs CES to refresh the source everyday at 12 AM. Because the incremental refresh takes care of maintaining the source up-to-date, you can select a longer interval such as Every Sunday (see What Should Be the Frequency of Source Refresh Schedules?).

   2. Review the value for the following parameters that often do not need to be modified:

      Rating

      Change this value only when you want to globally change the rating associated with all items in this source relative to the rating to other sources (see Understanding Search Results Ranking).

      Example: When a source replaces a legacy system, you may want to set this parameter to High, so that in the search interface, results from this source appear earlier in the list compared to those from legacy system sources.

      Document Types

      If you defined a custom document type set for this source, select it (see What Are Document Type Sets?).

      Active Languages

      If you defined custom active language sets, ensure to select the most appropriate for this source (see Adding and Configuring a Language Set).

6. In the Specific Connector Parameters & Options section of the Add Source page:

   

   1. In the API Key box, enter the API key you previously created (see Allowing the Coveo Connector Access to YouTube Data).

   2. In the Mapping File box, the path to the default mapping file that defines how the connector handles metadata often does not need to be changed.

   3. CES 7.0.8388+ (June 2016) Select the Index Playlists check box when you want YouTube channel playlists and playlist items to be indexed.

      Notes:

      • CES 7.0.8541+ (September 2016) This option is not used when you specify a playlist URL in the User, Channel, or Playlist URL parameter.

      • CES 7.0.8225– (March 2016) YouTube channel playlists and playlist items are indexed by default.

   4. Click Add Parameter when you want to show and change the value of advanced source parameters (see Modifying Hidden YouTube Source Parameters).

   5. The Option check boxes generally do not need to be changed:

      Index Subfolders CES 7.0.7599– (April 2015)

      This parameter is not taken into account for this connector.

      Index the document's metadata

      When selected, CES indexes all the document metadata, even metadata that are not associated with a field. The orphan metadata are added to the body of the document so that they can be searched using free text queries.

      When cleared (default), only the values of system and custom fields that have the Free Text Queries attribute selected will be searchable without using a field query (see Adding a Field to Search On and What Are Field Queries and Free Text Queries?).

      Example: A document has two metadata:

      • LastEditedBy containing the value Hector Smith

      • Department containing the value RH

      In CES, the custom field CorpDepartment is bound to the metadata Department and its Free Text Queries attribute is selected.

      When the Index the document's metadata option is cleared, searching for RH returns the document because a field is indexing this value. Searching for hector does not return the document because no field is indexing this value.

      When the Index the document's metadata option is selected, searching for hector also returns the document because CES indexed orphan metadata.

      Document's addresses are case-sensitive CES 7.0.7433– (February 2015)

      Ensure that this option is selected since YouTube video IDs are case sensitive.

      Generate a cached HTML version of indexed documents

      When you select this check box (recommended), at indexing time, CES creates HTML versions of indexed documents. In the search interfaces, users can then more rapidly review the content by clicking the Quick View link rather than opening the original document with the original application. Consider clearing this check box only when you do not want to use Quick View links or to save resources when building the source.

      Open results with cached version

      Leave this check box cleared (recommended) so that in the search interfaces, the main search result link opens the original document with the original application. Consider selecting this check box only when you do not want users to be able to open the original document but only see the HTML version of the document as a Quick View. In this case, you must also select Generate a cached HTML version of indexed documents.

   6. Click Save to save the source configuration.

7. Since the YouTube connector only indexes public videos, security permissions on the source content must be disabled:

   

   1. In the navigation menu on the left, select Permissions.

   2. Next to Permissions, select the Specifies the security permissions to index option.

   3. Next to Allowed Users, ensure that a well-known everyone group such as the Active Directory everyone \S-1-1-0\ is added.

   4. Click Apply Changes.

   5. On the toolbar, click Rebuild to start indexing your source.

8. Validate that the source building process is executed without errors:

   • In the navigation panel on the left, click Status, and then validate that the indexing proceeds without errors.

     OR

   • Open the CES Console to monitor the source building activities (see Using the CES Console).