Spending today building and testing my latest WordPress plugin.
Building an API-free WordPress plugin for automatically displaying the latest YouTube videos
Interestingly, this project started from a custom YouTube plugin I originally built for a client with a very specific niche requirement. The original version solved a particular problem, but as often happens, the idea kept growing and eventually evolved into something much more flexible.
Plugin goal is simple: automatically display the latest YouTube video from a channel without needing a YouTube API key.
So far I’ve added:
• Automatic channel detection from a channel URL, @handle or video link
• Scheduled checks for new uploads with retry logic if a video is delayed
• Length filtering to ignore Shorts or livestreams
• Multiple channels with individual shortcodes
• Custom overlays, thumbnails and play button controls
• A slightly ridiculous but fun 1980s CRT television mode complete with analogue tune-in effects and wooden side panels
Still testing and refining, but it’s working surprisingly well so far.
One of the biggest advantages is avoiding YouTube API keys and quota limits entirely by using RSS feeds and channel resolution instead.
It’s a good example of how a bespoke client solution can sometimes grow into a standalone tool with a much wider range of uses.
Back to testing...
An update on the plugin everything works well but i decided to add a new feed feature where it can feed videos from a news channel with time conditions and filters, testing today for that new feature.
Hopefully this plugin may help somebody who has content where an update youtube video feed may add weight to that content eg weather feed would be handy for a product that depends on eg type of weather or a trading blog where a trader channel content may provide a helpful addition.
At the moment i a running a Sky News feed for a demo set between 3 -15 minutes long, showing the crt display (analogue tv)
check it out here