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javascriptnode.jsyoutubeyoutube-dl

How to use node-youtube-dl driver?

I use youtube-dl node driver to get information about videos on youtube, but I have trouble with ReferenceError - require is not defined (First line). I installed node-youtube-dl module on my laptop and the code is just taken from example in description. Is there anything else that I'm missing to do? 

var youtubedl = require('youtube-dl');
var url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q7Vr3yQYWQ';

ytdl.getInfo(url, function(err, info) {
  if (err) throw err;

  console.log('id:', info.id);
  console.log('title:', info.title);
  console.log('url:', info.url);
  console.log('thumbnail:', info.thumbnail);
  console.log('description:', info.description);
  console.log('filename:', info._filename);
  console.log('duration:', info.duration);
  console.log('format_id:', info.format_id);
});

Solution

  • require() is a keyword in Node.js. It is used to import CommonJS modules like those in the npm registry. But it is not a keyword in your browser, where trying to use it will return a ReferenceError as you describe.

    If you want to import npm modules using require() in your browser, you can try browserify or webpack. However, it is entirely possible (probable?) that youtube-dl is not compatible with browserify or webpack.

    If you don't need to run it from a browser, you can put the code in a file (say, myFile.js) and run it from the command line with node: 

    node myFile.js