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How to Add YouTube Playlist to a React App

This article will use a simple project to explain how to use the @codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist library to add a YouTube playlist to your React application.

Here is a demo of what we will build:

http://localhost:3000

Without any further ado, let's get started with the first step.

Step 1: Get the Right Node and NPM Version

Make sure you have Node 10.16 (or greater) and NPM 5.6 (or greater) installed on your system.

note

Step 2: Create a New React App

Use NPM's create-react-app package to create a new React app called codesweetly-react-youtube-playlist-demo.

npx create-react-app codesweetly-react-youtube-playlist-demo

Alternatively, you can use Yarn to configure your project like so:

yarn create react-app codesweetly-react-youtube-playlist-demo

Step 3: Go Inside the Project Directory

After the installation process, navigate into the project directory like so:

cd codesweetly-react-youtube-playlist-demo

Step 4: Install the React YouTube Playlist Package

Using your text editor, install the React YouTube playlist package locally.

npm install @codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist --save

Note for NPM users

Did you get an 'npm ERR! ERESOLVE unable to resolve dependency tree' error?

If yes, please add --legacy-peer-deps to your installation command like so:

npm install @codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist --legacy-peer-deps

Note for Yarn users

Did you get a Module not found: Error: Can't resolve '@emotion/react/jsx-runtime' error?

If yes, please install @emotion/react@11.11.1:

yarn add @emotion/react@11.11.1

Step 5: Import the React YouTube Playlist Package

Open your App.js file and import the YouTube playlist package like so:

App.js
import logo from "./logo.svg";
import "./App.css";
import YouTubePlaylist from "@codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist";

Step 6: Render the React YouTube Playlist Package

After importing the playlist package, render it to the DOM as follows:

App.js
import logo from "./logo.svg";
import "./App.css";
import YouTubePlaylist from "@codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist";

function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<header className="App-header">
<img src={logo} className="App-logo" alt="logo" />
<p>
Edit <code>src/App.js</code> and save to reload.
</p>
<a
className="App-link"
href="https://reactjs.org"
target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"
>
Learn React
</a>
</header>
<YouTubePlaylist
apiKey="YOUR_YOUTUBE_API_KEY"
playlistId="YOUR_YOUTUBE_PLAYLIST_ID"
uniqueName="THIS_PLAYLIST_INSTANCE_NAME"
/>
</div>
);
}

export default App;

The YouTubePlaylist library accepts three required props:

PropsTypeDefaultDescription
apiKeystringundefined(Required) Your project's YouTube API key. (Learn how to get an API key)
playlistIdstringundefined

(Required) The ID of the YouTube playlist you wish to display.

Note: A playlist's ID is the list of characters after the "list=" in the URL—for instance, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=playlistID.

uniqueNamestringundefined

(Required) A unique name for the <YouTubePlaylist> instance.

Note:

Note for Remix users

Remix users should add "@codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist" to their remix.config.js file:

remix.config.js
/** @type {import('@remix-run/dev').AppConfig} */
module.exports = {
ignoredRouteFiles: ["**/.*"],
serverDependenciesToBundle: ["@codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist"],
serverModuleFormat: "cjs",
};

The serverDependenciesToBundle field tells Remix to transpile and include the "@codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist" package in the server bundle.

Note for NextJS users

NextJS users should declare the "use client" directive at the top of their file. It should sit above all other import statements like so:

"use client";
import YouTubePlaylist from "@codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist";
import ImageGallery from "react-image-grid-gallery";

The "use client" directive tells NextJS to consider all modules imported into the page as part of the Client Component module graph.

The YouTubePlaylist package works only as a Client Component because it uses React's State and Lifecycle effects, such as useState() and useEffect().

Step 7: Run the Application

Take a look at your app in the browser by running the following:

npm start

Or, if your package manager is Yarn, run:

yarn start
tip

Use the react-image-grid-gallery library to add image galleries to your React applications.

Live Demo

Below is a live demo that uses the React YouTube Playlist package to display CodeSweetly's "Reference" playlist.

Overview

Although we used the @codesweetly/react-youtube-playlist library on a simple project to create a YouTube playlist, you can use the same principles on any React application.