RSpec
Ruby on Rails
Ruby
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b64encode
(<= v1_8_7_330)
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decode64
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decode_b
(<= v1_8_7_330)
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encode64
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strict_decode64
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strict_encode64
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urlsafe_decode64
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urlsafe_encode64
= private
= protected
The Base64 module provides for the encoding (#encode64, #strict_encode64, #urlsafe_encode64) and decoding (#decode64, #strict_decode64, #urlsafe_decode64) of binary data using a Base64 representation.
Example
A simple encoding and decoding.
require "base64" enc = Base64.encode64('Send reinforcements') # -> "U2VuZCByZWluZm9yY2VtZW50cw==\n" plain = Base64.decode64(enc) # -> "Send reinforcements"
The purpose of using base64 to encode data is that it translates any binary data into purely printable characters.
Soleone -
February 12, 2009
Real life use
If you’re wondering what the base64 format is used for, here are some examples:
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HTTP Basic authentication: encode your username and password as one string, and add it as a header of an HTTP request. When a page requiring basic authentication gets called from a browser it results in a generic Username/Password dialog from that browser. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication
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Encode the binary content of images to base64 and embed it in XML documents, for example in web services
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For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64
Just note that the encoded (character) data is about 30% larger than un-encoded (binary) data.
