Base64 encoding and decoding in client-side Javascript

Question

Are there any methods in JavaScript that could be used to encode and decode a string using base64 encoding?

Answer 1

In Gecko/WebKit-based browsers (Firefox, Chrome and Safari) and Opera, you can use btoa() and atob().

Original answer: How can you encode a string to Base64 in JavaScript?

Answer 2

For JavaScripts frameworks where there is no atob method and in case you do not want to import external libraries, this is short function that does it.

It would get a string that contains Base64 encoded value and will return a decoded array of bytes (where the array of bytes is represented as array of numbers where each number is an integer between 0 and 255 inclusive).

function fromBase64String(str) {
    var alpha = 
    "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/";
    var value = [];
    var index = 0;
    var destIndex  = 0;
    var padding = false;
    while (true) {

        var first  = getNextChr(str, index, padding, alpha);
        var second = getNextChr(str, first .nextIndex, first .padding, alpha);
        var third  = getNextChr(str, second.nextIndex, second.padding, alpha);
        var fourth = getNextChr(str, third .nextIndex, third .padding, alpha);

        index = fourth.nextIndex;
        padding = fourth.padding;

        // ffffffss sssstttt ttffffff
        var base64_first  = first.code  == null ? 0 : first.code;
        var base64_second = second.code == null ? 0 : second.code;
        var base64_third  = third.code  == null ? 0 : third.code;
        var base64_fourth = fourth.code == null ? 0 : fourth.code;

        var a = (( base64_first << 2) & 0xFC ) | ((base64_second>>4) & 0x03);
        var b = (( base64_second<< 4) & 0xF0 ) | ((base64_third >>2) & 0x0F);
        var c = (( base64_third << 6) & 0xC0 ) | ((base64_fourth>>0) & 0x3F);

        value [destIndex++] = a;
        if (!third.padding) {
            value [destIndex++] = b;
        } else {
            break;
        }
        if (!fourth.padding) {
            value [destIndex++] = c;
        } else {
            break;
        }
        if (index >= str.length) {
            break;
        }
    }
    return value;
}

function getNextChr(str, index, equalSignReceived, alpha) {
    var chr = null;
    var code = 0;
    var padding = equalSignReceived;
    while (index < str.length) {
        chr = str.charAt(index);
        if (chr == " " || chr == "\r" || chr == "\n" || chr == "\t") {
            index++;
            continue;
        }
        if (chr == "=") {
            padding = true;
        } else {
            if (equalSignReceived) {
                throw new Error("Invalid Base64 Endcoding character \"" 
                    + chr + "\" with code " + str.charCodeAt(index) 
                    + " on position " + index 
                    + " received afer an equal sign (=) padding "
                    + "character has already been received. "
                    + "The equal sign padding character is the only "
                    + "possible padding character at the end.");
            }
            code = alpha.indexOf(chr);
            if (code == -1) {
                throw new Error("Invalid Base64 Encoding character \"" 
                    + chr + "\" with code " + str.charCodeAt(index) 
                    + " on position " + index + ".");
            }
        }
        break;
    }
    return { character: chr, code: code, padding: padding, nextIndex: ++index};
}

Resources used: RFC-4648 Section 4