Prettify and nest comments from yt-dlp's info.json file and write it to a new html/json file

ytdlp_nest_comments.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""
SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
Copyright © 2021 pukkandan.ytdlp@gmail.com


* Input file is an info.json (with comments) that yt-dlp (https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp) wrote
* Change FIELDS according to your needs

The output file will be in the format:
[{
  'text': 'comment 1',
  ...
  'replies': [{
    'text': 'reply 1',
    ...
    'replies': [...],
  }, ...],
}, ...]
"""

import os.path
import json
import argparse
from datetime import datetime


def get_fields(dct):
    for name, fn in FIELDS.items():
        val = fn(dct, name)
        if val is not None:
            yield name, val


def filter_func(comments):
    return [dict(get_fields(c)) for c in comments]


FIELDS = {
    'text': dict.get,
    'author': dict.get,
    'timestamp': lambda dct, name: dct.get(name) and datetime.strftime(
        datetime.utcfromtimestamp(dct.get(name)), '%Y/%m/%d'),
    # Add more fields here
    'replies': lambda dct, name: filter_func(dct.get(name, [])) or None
}


parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(
    '--input-file', '-i',
    dest='inputfile', metavar='FILE', required=True,
    help='File to read video metadata from (info.json)')
parser.add_argument(
    '--output-file', '-o',
    dest='outputfile', metavar='FILE', required=True,
    help='File to write comments to (json / html)')
args = parser.parse_args()


ext = os.path.splitext(args.outputfile)[1][1:]
if ext == 'html':  # Error early
    try:
        from json2html import json2html
    except ImportError:
        raise SystemExit('ERROR: json2html is required for html output. Install it with  pip install json2html')
elif ext != 'json':
    raise SystemExit(f'ERROR: Only json and html formats are supported, not {ext}')


print('Reading file')
with open(args.inputfile, encoding='utf-8') as f:
    info_dict = json.load(f)

comment_data = {c['id']: c for c in sorted(
    info_dict['comments'], key=lambda c: c.get('timestamp') or 0)}
count = len(info_dict['comments'])
del info_dict
nested_comments = []
for i, (cid, c) in enumerate(comment_data.items(), 1):
    print(f'Processing comment {i}/{count}', end='\r')
    parent = nested_comments if c['parent'] == 'root' else comment_data[c['parent']].setdefault('replies', [])
    parent.append(c)
del parent


print('')
nested_comments = filter_func(nested_comments)


if ext == 'json':
    print('Converting to json')
    out = json.dumps(nested_comments, indent=4, ensure_ascii=False)


elif ext == 'html':
    print('Converting to html')
    out = json2html.convert(nested_comments)


del nested_comments
print('Writing file')
with open(args.outputfile, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write(out)
print('Done')

EDIT: See newer version below based on @pukkandan's feedback.

Thanks very much for sharing this; makes reading downloaded YT comments much more pleasant.

The HTML output can be made a bit easier to read by replacing:

    out = json2html.convert(nested_comments)

with:

    def wrap_html(data, top_level=True):
        html = '<ul>'
        for comment in data:
            html += f'<li><div class="comment-box">'
            html += f'<p><strong>{comment.get("author", "Anonymous")}:</strong> {comment["text"]}</p>'
            if 'timestamp' in comment:
                html += f'<p><small>{comment["timestamp"]}</small></p>'
            if 'replies' in comment and comment['replies']:
                html += wrap_html(comment['replies'], top_level=False)
            html += '</div></li>'
        html += '</ul>'
        if top_level:
            style = '''
            <style>
                .comment-box {
                    border: 1px solid #ccc;
                    padding: 10px;
                }
                .comments ul {
                    list-style-type: none;
                    padding-left: 20px;
                }
            </style>
            '''
            meta = '<meta charset="UTF-8">'
            return f'{meta}{style}<div class="comments">{html}</div>'
        return html

    out = wrap_html(nested_comments)

I'm just confirming that @tinyapps suggested changes really do improve the HTML output. One very nice thing about this change is that your script would no longer require the json2html module.

I am no longer maintaining this script. Feel free to fork and improve

PS: From a quick look, @tinyapps' script is not escaping the fields. This could cause the html to break, or worse, can cause arbitrary JS injection.

Thank you for your kind response, @pukkandan. By adding one more import statement (import html) to the top of the script, we can escape the fields like so:

    def wrap_html(data, top_level=True):
        html_content = '<ul>'
        for comment in data:
            author = html.escape(comment.get("author", "Anonymous"))
            text = html.escape(comment["text"])
            timestamp = html.escape(comment.get("timestamp", ""))

            html_content += f'<li><div class="comment-box">'
            html_content += f'<p><strong>{author}:</strong> {text}</p>'
            if timestamp:
                html_content += f'<p><small>{timestamp}</small></p>'
            if 'replies' in comment and comment['replies']:
                html_content += wrap_html(comment['replies'], top_level=False)
            html_content += '</div></li>'
        html_content += '</ul>'

        if top_level:
            style = '''
            <style>
                .comment-box {
                    border: 1px solid #ccc;
                    padding: 10px;
                }
                .comments ul {
                    list-style-type: none;
                    padding-left: 20px;
                }
            </style>
            '''
            meta = '<meta charset="UTF-8">'
            return f'{meta}{style}<div class="comments">{html_content}</div>'
        return html_content

    out = wrap_html(nested_comments)

@tinyapps when the html output is viewed in the browser, empty lines and indentations are lost. It shows up as a single very long line. It seems to be a display issue only. When the file is opened in a text editor, the line breaks and indentations are there. Any way to fix this?

Thanks for catching that, @m3jorri. Please try replacing:

text = html.escape(comment["text"])

with:

text = html.escape(comment["text"]).replace('\n', '<br>') # Convert newlines to <br>

and:

html_content += f'<p><strong>{author}:</strong> {text}</p>'

with:

html_content += f'<p><strong>{author}:</strong> <pre>{text}</pre></p>' # Wrap text in <pre> to preserve spaces and newlines

Thank you! This indeed fixes it, but perhaps creates another issue. If the user's original comment is a long single line without breaks/newlines, then it does not wrap around within the box in html output. It overflows, and creates a long single line while displaying in browser. Any solution for that?

@m3jorri, Try replacing:

html_content += f'<p><strong>{author}:</strong> <pre>{text}</pre></p>' # Wrap text in <pre> to preserve spaces and newlines

with:

html_content += f'<p><strong>{author}:</strong> <div class="comment-text">{text}</div></p>' # Wrap text in div with a class for styling

and add this just above the closing style tag:

.comment-text {
    white-space: pre-wrap; /* Preserve whitespace and line breaks */
}

Once all of the fixes are in place, can one of you please post the full, revised version? @tinyapps @m3jorri

@jftuga, I have forked the script and added a few more modifications. Please let me know if you have any questions.