Base64 Encoding
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Fast Base64 encoding and decoding powered by WebAssembly. This library is modeled after the WHATWG TextEncoder and TextDecoder API.
When I was experimenting with toolchainless WebAssembly I was looking for a simple, self-contained C library that I could ship as a useful WASM library. I’ve always found Base64 encoding confusing, particularly in the browser, so it became a natural target.
The result is Base64 Encoding, an isomorphic runs-everywhere WASM-with-JS-fallback Base64 implementation, with an API that is modeled after the WHATWG text encoding standard. It should therefore feel very familiar to people writing modern low(er)-level JavaScript code.
Because the C code is short, the compiled WASM is inlined into the the JS (Base64-encoded). Should instantiation fail, the pure-JS implementation that is needed to decode the inlined WASM is used as a fallback.
Example
Together with UUID Class this enables creating short, URL-friendly UUIDs:
For example the following strings represents the same 128 bit of data:
ed672cd6-696b-4d22-a977-f3442da10c1d <=> 7Wcs1mlrTSKpd_NELaEMHQ
Converting between the two works as follows:
const id = new UUID('ed672cd6-696b-4d22-a977-f3442da10c1d')
new Base64Encoder({ url: true }).encode(id)
// => 7Wcs1mlrTSKpd_NELaEMHQ
new UUID(new Base64Decoder().decode('7Wcs1mlrTSKpd_NELaEMHQ'))
// => UUID [ ed672cd6-696b-4d22-a977-f3442da10c1d ]
