base64 <-> Uint8Array <-> ArrayBuffer

📦 A simple, lightweight, and efficient JavaScript library to manage encoding and decoding between base64 data, Uint8Arrays, and ArrayBuffers. This library perfectly works with Node.js and the browser.

• < 900 bytes gzipped!
• No dependency
• Accepts base64url and replace non-url compatible chars with base64 standard chars
• Adds missing padding to base64 string
• Works even on large data
• Uses modern functions and shorter solutions
• Supports ES modules, AMD, CommonJS and IIFE

Installation

CDN

The easiest way to use base64-u8array-arraybuffer is to include the library from a CDN:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/base64-u8array-arraybuffer.min.js"></script>

Then, in your JavaScript code:

// Unpacking needed functions from the global object
const { base64ToArrayBuffer } = base64u8ArrayBuffer

const buffer = base64ToArrayBuffer('base64 string here')

Local

You can also install base64-u8array-arraybuffer in your project.

npm i base64-u8array-arraybuffer

And then, you can import the library as ES Module:

import { base64ToArrayBuffer } from 'base64-u8array-arraybuffer'

const buffer = base64ToArrayBuffer('base64 string here')

You can also use commonJS syntax with require()

Note ES Module syntax also works in modern browsers. You just need to add type="module" to your <script> tag.

<script type="module" src="..."></script>

Available functions

Function name	Description
base64ToUint8Array(base64String)	base64 to Uint8Array
uint8ArrayToBase64(uint8Array)	Uint8Array to Base64 (Works with any TypedArray. You can use typedArrayToBase64() alias.)
uint8ArrayToArrayBuffer(uint8Array)	Uint8Array to ArrayBuffer (Works with any TypedArray. You can use typedArrayToArrayBuffer() alias.)
arrayBufferToUint8Array(arrayBuffer)	ArrayBuffer to Uint8Array
base64ToArrayBuffer(base64String)	base64 to ArrayBuffer
arrayBufferToBase64(arrayBuffer)	ArrayBuffer to base64

Useful case

An example for this library would be to convert a base64url VAPID application server key into an Uint8Array to subscribe to Web Push Notifications. You can achieve this by using base64ToUint8Array(base64String) function.

const { base64ToUint8Array } = base64u8ArrayBuffer

const applicationServerPublicKey = 'base64url public key'

async function subscribeUserToPush(registration) {
  // ...
  const subscription = await registration.pushManager.subscribe({
    userVisibleOnly: true,
    applicationServerKey: base64ToUint8Array(applicationServerPublicKey)
  })
  // ...
}

Tests

There are no tests for the moment.

License

MIT License.