Convert binary data to base64 with javascript

HTML5 enable you to store data locally which I think it is great. For example here is how you can use it:

        var store = window.localStorage;
        store.setItem('foo', "hellow world");
        var test = store.getItem('foo');
        // test should = "hellow world"

In html you can dynamically display an image by settig its source to:

     "data:image/jpg;base64," + (base64string)

So my question is how can I convert binary data to a base64 string so that I can take advantage of html5 local storage?

For example it will be great if I could:

$.ajax({
   url: 'someImage.png',
   type: 'POST',
   success: function (r) {

                // here I want to convert r to a base64 string !
                // r is not binary so maybe I have to use a different approach
                var data = ConvertToBase64(r);



                document.getElementById("img").src = "data:image/png;base64," + data;
            },
});

I know I could solve this problem by wrapping the image around a canvas using html5 then converting that to base64string. also I can make a specific service on the server that will send a base64 string data of that image (someImage.aspx).I just want to know if it will by possible to retrieve binary data from a server and convert that to a base64 string.

Solution 1:

To prevent 'InvalidCharacterError' error, you need to do this:

var base64EncodedStr = btoa(unescape(encodeURIComponent(rawData)));

Solution 2:

Use a FileReader to encode your image as a data URL:

jQuery.ajax({...})
.done(function (r) {
  var reader = new FileReader(
  reader.onload = (function(self) {
    return function(e) {
      document.getElementById("img").src = e.target.result;
    }
  })(this);
  reader.readAsDataURL(new Blob([r]));
});

Solution 3:

Try the btoa function:

   var data = btoa(r);

Solution 4:

This is old question, but could not find a better answer, so I wrote down this function. It will convert the Uint8Array directly to Base64 without converting it into a string before base64. Hope it will help someone.

var encoder = new TextEncoder("ascii");
var decoder = new TextDecoder("ascii");
var base64Table = encoder.encode('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=');
function toBase64(dataArr){
    var padding = dataArr.byteLength % 3;
    var len = dataArr.byteLength - padding;
    padding = padding > 0 ? (3 - padding) : 0;
    var outputLen = ((len/3) * 4) + (padding > 0 ? 4 : 0);
    var output = new Uint8Array(outputLen);
    var outputCtr = 0;
    for(var i=0; i<len; i+=3){              
        var buffer = ((dataArr[i] & 0xFF) << 16) | ((dataArr[i+1] & 0xFF) << 8) | (dataArr[i+2] & 0xFF);
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[buffer >> 18];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[(buffer >> 12) & 0x3F];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[(buffer >> 6) & 0x3F];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[buffer & 0x3F];
    }
    if (padding == 1) {
        var buffer = ((dataArr[len] & 0xFF) << 8) | (dataArr[len+1] & 0xFF);
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[buffer >> 10];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[(buffer >> 4) & 0x3F];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[(buffer << 2) & 0x3F];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[64];
    } else if (padding == 2) {
        var buffer = dataArr[len] & 0xFF;
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[buffer >> 2];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[(buffer << 4) & 0x3F];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[64];
        output[outputCtr++] = base64Table[64];
    }
    
    var ret = decoder.decode(output);
    output = null;
    dataArr = null;
    return ret;
}

Solution 5:

//dataArr is a Uint8Array        
function toBase64(dataArr){
            return btoa(dataArr.reduce((data, val)=> {
                 return data + String.fromCharCode(val);
            }, ''));
        }