Error while list data from youtube channel (problems happen occasionally)

Question

User944339287 posted

Hi guys.. below is my code to list data from my youtube channel.

It's working fine all the time, but the error will be returned occasionally:
The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.

And it will back to normal after a couple of times. Does anyone know why it will happen?

        Dim wc As WebClient = New WebClient With {
            .Encoding = Encoding.UTF8
        }

        Dim key As String = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

        Try
            Dim jsonstring As String = wc.DownloadString("https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlists?part=snippet&key=" & key & "&maxResults=50&channelId=" & Me.txt_username.Text.Trim & "")
            Dim jobj As JObject = CType(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonstring), JObject)

            For Each entry In jobj("items")
                DT.Rows.Add(entry("snippet")("title").ToString(), entry("snippet")("description").ToString(), entry("id").ToString(), entry("snippet")("thumbnails")("medium")("url").ToString())
            Next

        Catch ex As Exception
            Response.Write(ex.Message)
        End Try

Answer 1

User475983607 posted

Your code is a bit sloppy.  Maybe get the stack trace and inner exception along with the Error message in the catch block.  

The URL has a direct dependency on user input.  Maybe the input is empty?  I do not see validation that stops the user from entering invalid data.

Answer 2

User944339287 posted
Hi. Thanks for ur replied.

The input is valid as it’s generated by system.

Meanwhile.. do you mind to improve my code as it’s actually refer from online tutorials.

Thank you

Answer 3

User475983607 posted

The input is valid as it’s generated by system.

The snippet of code you shared above is fetching an input value, Me.txt_username.Text.Trim, which is commonly user entry.  If this value is machine generated then there could be a problem with the code that generates the value.  

Answer 4

User-1330468790 posted

Hi, kengkit,

 

I can see that you are using "YouTube Data API v3" to fetch json data.

It is not clear that what the exact reason is for your error. There is a list of the errors for this data API.

https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/errors#gdata.CoreErrorDomain

Could you check the error details and provide with more specified information?

 

Guess:

Since the error occurs occasionally, it should not be a problem of using 'WebClient' or simple access forbidden issue as below. 

Access forbidden. The request may not be properly authorized.

Possibile reasons:

Error type	Error detail	Description
forbidden (403)	channelClosed	The channel identified in the request has been closed.
forbidden (403)	channelNotFound	The channel identified in the request cannot be found.
forbidden (403)	channelSuspended	The channel identified in the request has been suspended.

Above errors can be solved by checking the json string to see if the error message contains above details.

Hope this can help you.

Best regards,

Sean

Answer 5

User944339287 posted

Hi, The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden. is the only error message i can get in "immediate windows"

meanwhile, i wonder is it because of my quota full? (i'm the only user to do testing, 5~8 visit per day. how come i can consumed all the quota?)

Answer 6

User-1330468790 posted

Hi, kengkit,

As far as I can see, you don't use up all of the quota so that the problem could not be it.

Actually you can see the details from your side, the error message you found is just a brief description from the exception by 'try-catch'.

Solution:

Modify the try-catch to get more detailed information about the error.

Dim wc As WebClient = New WebClient() With {
        .Encoding = Encoding.UTF8
    }
    Dim key As String = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

    Try
        Dim jsonstring As String = wc.DownloadString("https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlists?part=snippet&key=" & key & "&maxResults=50&channelId=" & Me.txt_username.Text.Trim & "")
        Dim jobj As JObject = CType(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonstring), JObject)

        For Each entry In jobj("items")
            DT.Rows.Add(entry("snippet")("title").ToString(), entry("snippet")("description").ToString(), entry("id").ToString(), entry("snippet")("thumbnails")("medium")("url").ToString())
        Next

    Catch ex As WebException
        Dim resp = New StreamReader(ex.Response.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd()
        Dim obj As dynamic = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(resp)
        Dim messageFromServer = obj.[error].message
        Response.Write(messageFromServer)
    End Try

The resp here should be a json string like below:

{
   "error":{
      "errors":[
         {
            "domain":"youtube.playlist",
            "reason":"channelClosed",
            "message":"The channel specified in the echannelId parameter has been closed.",
            "locationType":"parameter",
            "location":"channelId"
         }
      ],
      "code":403,
      "message":"The channel specified in the channelId parameter has been closed."
   }
}

Hope this can help you.

Best regards,

Sean

Answer 7

User944339287 posted

Hi i having difficulties to apply your code.

Answer 8

User944339287 posted

I have got the error message by using the following code:

Reason: quotaExceeded
Message: "The request cannot be completed because you have exceeded your \u003ca href=\"/youtube/v3/getting-started#quota\"\u003equota\u003c/a\u003e."

            Dim resp = New StreamReader(ex.Response.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd()
            Response.Write(resp)

Answer 9

User-1330468790 posted

Hi, kengkit,

 

Obviously, the problem is as the error message said.

You really exceeded your quota for querying from Google API.

 

Then you should upgrade your google account or wait for another day/week/month since you will have new quota. (as far as I know).

 

I suggest you could mark the answer if you think it is right and helpful.

This will help other people who faces the same issue to find the right answer faster.

 

Best regards,

Sean