Browser-based uploading is a 5 step mechanism:

* First get the meta data of the video (title,description,keywords...)

* Send to YouTube the meta data with authorization headers

* If it successfully records your meta data, YouTube sends back an url and a token. This data is used to link together the meta data and the video file itself.

* Present the user with a way to choose the video he/she wants to upload and send the data directly over YouTube.

* If the upload process is finished (either success or failure), YouTube redirects your user to the url you've specified; with some extra parameters

You can read an in-depth explanation of the process:

<http://code.google.com/intl/en/apis/youtube/2.0/developers_guide_protocol_browser_based_uploading.html#Browser_Upload_Process>

In order to write data to YouTube, you must do two things:

* Register an application to the YouTube Dashboard:

<http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/dashboard/>

By registering your application, you will get a unique developer key that will be required when doing any write actions.

* Authorized the user to do write actions

Saving meta data, updating meta data or uploading a file require to be authorized.

Actually only ClientLogin mechanism is implemented in the library but OAuth will arrive soon.

ClientLogin is by far the simplest authorization mechanism. Basically, you log in yourself into an account by giving email, password and your key and you get back an authorization key.

OAuth requires some steps ahead before using it and we won't see them as long as the mechanism is not in place.

In order to be authorized you must log in into an account. You can do so by using WebService::GData::ClientLogin.

Example:

    #key from your dashboard
        
    use constant KEY=>'*****r*****************s**************B*';
    
    #connect to an account via ClientLogin
    
    my $auth; 
    eval {
        $auth = new WebService::GData::ClientLogin(
                email=>'********@gmail.com',
                password=>'*********',
                key=>KEY
        );
    };
    
    #handle error
    
    if(my $error = $@){
       #do something meaningful
       #$error->code,$error->content
    }

If everything went fine, you can create a YouTube instance with write access.

See WebService::GData::ClientLogin for further details about the log in mechanism.

Now that you are logged in, you have to pass the authorization object to the YouTube instance:

Example:

    use WebService::GData::ClientLogin;
    use WebService::GData::YouTube;
        
    #log in
    my $auth = new WebService::GData::ClientLogin(...);

    #create an empty video placeholder with read access
    
    my $video = new WebService::GData::YouTube($auth)->video;

Now you have a place holder, it is just a matter of filling the proper information. You should create a form where the user would enter the following information(* specify an optional information):

* Title of the video

* Description of the video

* Keywords

* Category (predefined categories from YouTube: People,Music...)

* Location* (longitude and latitude coming from a map, let's say Google Map)

* Private* (if set to private only predefined user will be able to see the video)

* Access Control* See <http://code.google.com/intl/en/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#youtube_data_api_tag_yt:accessControl>

So it could be something like that:

Example:

    use CGI;
    #create an empty video placeholder with read access
    
    my $video = new WebService::GData::YouTube($auth)->video;

    my $request= new CGI;
    
    $video->title($request->param('title'));
    
    $video->description($request->param('description'));
    
    $video->keywords($request->param('keywords'));
    
    $video->category($request->param('category'));
    
    #from google map for example
    $video->location($request->param('location'));
    
    #who can see me?
    $video->is_private(1) if($request->param('is_private'));
    
    #all the available settings can be set
    $entry->access_control('comment',$request->param('comment'));
    $entry->access_control('comment',$request->param('embed'));

Now that we have all the meta information we need, let's save them:

Example:

    use CGI;
    #create an empty video placeholder with read access
    
    my $video = new WebService::GData::YouTube($auth)->video;

    my $request= new CGI;
    
    $video->title($request->param('title'));
    
    $video->description($request->param('description'));

    ....
    
    my($url,$token)= $video->save;

As you can see the save method sends back two variables: an url and a token. At this stage of the process, the meta information is stored as temporary information within YouTube. The $url and $token does expire after a certain amount of time (15 minutes it seems.)

The user has choosen his/her video, pressed upload.

YouTube handled the request directly and will redirect to your website (well, to the url specified in nexturl) by adding some parameters defining the state of the video.

    http://www.example.com/thankyou.html?id=sxZekqqleksk&status=200

        http://www.example.com/thankyou.html?status=403&code=INVALID_TOKEN