Data URLs

## Data URLs

Leo Savernik

Data URLs allow small document data to be included in the URL itself. This is useful for very small HTML testcases or other occasions that do not justify a document of their own.

`data:,foobar` (note the comma after the colon) will deliver a text document that contains nothing but `foobar`.

The last example delivered a text document. For HTML documents one has to specify the MIME type `text/html`: “`data:text/html,<title>Testcase</title><p>This is a testcase</p>`”. This will produce exactly the same output as if the content had been loaded from a document of its own.

Specifying alternate character sets is also possible. Note that 8-Bit characters have to be escaped by a percentage sign and their two-digit hexadecimal codes: “`data:;charset=iso-8859-1,Gr%FC%DFe aus Schl%E4gl`” results in “`Grüße aus Schlägl`” whereas omitting the charset attribute might lead to something like “`Gr??e aus Schl?gl`”.

IETF RFC2397 provides more information.