Prerequisites

1. Register your application with Google so that it can submit API requests.
2. After registering your application, select the YouTube Analytics API as one of the services that your application will use:
   1. Go to the APIs Console and select the project that you just registered.
   2. Click on the Services pane.
   3. In the list of APIs, find the YouTube Analytics API and change its status to ON.
3. Familiarize yourself with YouTube Analytics. If you haven't used YouTube Analytics before, log in to YouTube and try the YouTube Analytics user interface before you start coding.
4. Familiarize yourself with the core concepts of the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data format. JSON is a common, language-independent data format that provides a simple text representation of arbitrary data structures. For more information, see json.org.
5. Read the authentication guide to learn how to implement OAuth 2.0 authorization. All API requests must be authorized, and users may only retrieve reports for their own content.
6. Review the sample application, which walks you through the basic steps of using the Google APIs Client Library for JavaScript to retrieve YouTube Analytics data.

Building your application

1. Select a client library to simplify your YouTube API implementation.
2. Review the Reports page for general information about the types of reports that are available and for information about quota usage. Then review the documents explaining channel reports and content owner reports for details about the data that you can retrieve and your options for aggregating that data.
3. Read the API Reference Guide to understand the API response format. In that document, the definition of the ids parameter, which is a required parameter for all API requests, explains how to identify the API user for whom you are retrieving Analytics data.

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