Display YouTube videos in a gallery in WordPress website and how to get YouTube API Key

YouTube Videos Gallery in WordPress

There may come time when we need to show YouTube videos on websites. As most of us may already know, we can easily embed YouTube videos in web pages by simply copying the YouTube embed code from a particular YouTube video and put it in web page to display the YouTube video. Similarly, we can show YouTube library.

In this post, we shall discuss how to add a YouTube videos gallery in WordPress website that I did for one project recently. The requirement is to post videos on a YouTube channel and show the same to the WordPress YouTube Gallery to display.

We don't particularly need a YouTube account to embed videos already available on YouTube or videos uploaded by others- be it an individual YouTube video or YouTube videos playlist. We can embed someone else's YouTube video or playlist if they have enabled embedding. But to display YouTube videos from a YouTube channel in a gallery in WordPress using a plugin, we would need a YouTube API Key. For that reason, we need to have a Google Account / YouTube Account. And if we want to continue uploading new videos, then, of course, we need a YouTube Account.

How to show YouTube videos in a gallery in WordPress website

1. Create a YouTube Account if not already created

2. Upload videos to the YouTube Account (Create YouTube Channel)

After we have a YouTube account and some videos have been uploaded on YouTube, let's proceed to create a YouTube videos gallery in WordPress site.

3. Install a suitable YouTube video gallery plugin on WordPress

If you are not a developer, you would need to find appropriate plugins to show a YouTube video gallery in WordPress site. Even if you are a developer, why re-invent the wheel if there are plugins available that meets the requirements, hmm?? And there are many plugins available!

So, to show YouTube videos gallery on WordPress, the easiest and simplest way to achieve it is by installing a YouTube video gallery plugin. There are many similar plugins out there including FREE ones that can do the job. We just need to find a suitable one for the website depending on the features and layout of the thumbnails/players etc. as desired. 

You may try some of these:
 Easy YouTube Gallery
YouTube Channel Gallery
Huge-IT: Video Gallery and YouTube Gallery

4. Get YouTube API Key

To allow access to the YouTube videos to be displayed in a gallery using a WordPress plugin, a YouTube API key is required. It authorizes the WordPress plugin to access YouTube. To get the YouTube API Key, do the following.

Watch this short video how to get YouTube API Key which is required for setting up WordPress YouTube videos gallery plugins

• You need a Google Account to get YouTube API key. But since we already created a YouTube account, that is the same.
• Go to https://console.developers.google.com
• Create a new project on https://console.developers.google.com
• Give a suitable name for the project
• Click “Create” to proceed
• Click on the “Hamburger” icon
• Click on “API Manager”
• Make sure that the new project name is selected in the dropdown
• Click “Enable API”
• Click on “YouTube Data API”

• Click “Enable” in the page where “YouTube Data API v3” is displayed
• After enabling, you should see disable

• Click “Credentials” from the left sidebar and then click “Create Credentials”
• From the options under “Create Credentials”, select “API Key”

• API Key is generated in the next page, copy the key
• Use the key in the YouTube Gallery Plugin

Copy the YouTube Data API key from the page and use the YouTube API key in the WordPress YouTube Gallery plugin to set it up.

The reset of the configuration on the WordPress YouTube Gallery Plugin depends on the plugin where we can configure the look, the number of thumbnails to display and any other settings provided by the plugin.

After configuring the YouTube Gallery Plugin with the API key, the gallery in my case looks like the screenshot below.

YouTube Videos Gallery in WordPress