Excessive requests required to access viewCount in YouTube v3 API search request

Question

I am currently in the process of testing out the YouTube v3 API... I have a search results view in my mobile app that displays video results requiring the following fields:

title, author, views, description, thumbnail

In v2 a request to:

https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos?q=bugatti&orderby=published&max-results=10&v=2&alt=jsonc

Returns the following response for a video entry:

{
    "id": "rdprvN3g3EU",
    "uploaded": "2013-02-11T12:49:05.000Z",
    "updated": "2013-02-11T12:49:05.000Z",
    "uploader": "thelongsixteen",
    "category": "Games",
    "title": "GTA IV Mods: Most Wanted #29 (German) (HD) - Ford Fiesta HFHV von Ken Block",
    "description": "Wenn euch das Video gefallen hat dann hinterlasst bitte ein ganz brutalen Like. :D Es hilft mir und dem Projekt sehr weiter zu machen. ^_^ » Grand Theft Auto IV Most Wanted Playlist: www.youtube.com » Mehr Videos findet ihr hier: www.youtube.com » Left 4 Liberty Infection v5.1 (Halloween Special): www.youtube.com Eine kleine Info über dieses Projekt: In diesem Projekt nehme ich ein bestimmtes Fahrzeug wie zB den Hummer H2 und versuche vom Flughafen aus zum Alderny Staatsgefängnis zu kommen und der schwierigste Part daran ist: 6 Star Wanted! :O Ich fahre jedesmal eine bestimmte Route um das Ziel zu erreichen und werde sehen wie es die Polizei genießen wird mich gegen alles zu drücken was nicht auf 3 auf dem Baum ist. Ich wünsche euch viel Spaß mit dem Video und wie immer Sweet Lovin! :D Die Mods: Grand Theft Auto Ultimate Vehicle Pack V9 (TBOGT/EPM Support) www.gta4-mods.com Das Video von dem Car Pack www.youtube.com ChinaGreenElvis ENB 4 for GTA IV and EFLC www.gta4-mods.com Color Radio HUD www.gta4-mods.com Bigger and Realistic Explosion Mod V.2 www.gta4-mods.com [PUSH] M16 A2 www.gta4-mods.com 2003 Volkswagen Bora V6 www.gta4-mods.com 2013 Ferrari 458 Spider www.gta4-mods.com 2013 SRT Viper GTS www.gta4-mods.com 2012 Porsche Cayenne Turbo *update* www.gta4-mods.com 2010 Bentley Continental SuperSports [EPM] www.gta4-mods.com 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 www.gta4-mods.com Lincoln Town Car Limousine 2006 (beta) www.gta4-mods.com 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne www.gta4-mods.com GMC <b>...</b>",
    "thumbnail": {
        "sqDefault": "http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rdprvN3g3EU/default.jpg",
        "hqDefault": "http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rdprvN3g3EU/hqdefault.jpg"
    },
    "player": {
        "default": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdprvN3g3EU&feature=youtube_gdata_player",
        "mobile": "https://m.youtube.com/details?v=rdprvN3g3EU"
    },
    "content": {
        "1": "rtsp://v6.cache8.c.youtube.com/CiILENy73wIaGQlF3ODdvGvarRMYDSANFEgGUgZ2aWRlb3MM/0/0/0/video.3gp",
        "5": "https://www.youtube.com/v/rdprvN3g3EU?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata",
        "6": "rtsp://v6.cache8.c.youtube.com/CiILENy73wIaGQlF3ODdvGvarRMYESARFEgGUgZ2aWRlb3MM/0/0/0/video.3gp"
    },
    "duration": 615,
    "aspectRatio": "widescreen",
    "rating": 5,
    "likeCount": "8",
    "ratingCount": 8,
    "viewCount": 35,
    "favoriteCount": 0,
    "commentCount": 4,
    "accessControl": {
        "comment": "allowed",
        "commentVote": "allowed",
        "videoRespond": "moderated",
        "rate": "allowed",
        "embed": "allowed",
        "list": "allowed",
        "autoPlay": "allowed",
        "syndicate": "allowed"
    }
}

I get everything I need... With v3 it's looking like I have to make the following requests

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=id&key={YOUR_API_KEY}

Which gives me a name and description and channelId

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?id=rdprvN3g3EU&part=snippet%2C+contentDetails%2C+statistics&key={YOUR_API_KEY}

This guy then gives me the view count

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet&id=rdprvN3g3EU&key={YOUR_API_KEY}

And this final request to get the name of the author...

In v2 I only need to make a single request to get everything I need, and you'd expect the fields that I am requiring to be present in a standard search request anyway surely? I can't see any support for batch requests in v3 either. Am I missing something? Don't even get me started on the implications with rate limiting either :(

Using v3 to perform a simple search I use 3 quota units for the first request, 7 for the second and a further 3 for the final.

13 quota units to perform a single video search per user, displaying what I consider to be relatively standard information.

Answer 1

You can make batch requests by comma separating the video id's in the id= parameter like so:

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?id=9OBm7aYa6Ic%2C+PTlL2N5Iwh8&part=id%2Csnippet%2Cstatistics&key={YOUR_API_KEY}

I'm not entirely sure how your application works, but you could store the name of the channel so a call for a given channelId only has to happen once.

If you wanted to make the requests smaller, it looks like you aren't using the contentDetails part of your videos call.