| # abab [](https://www.npmjs.com/package/abab) [](https://travis-ci.org/jsdom/abab) | |
| A JavaScript module that implements `window.atob` and `window.btoa` according the forgiving-base64 algorithm in the [Infra Standard](https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/#forgiving-base64). The original code was forked from [w3c/web-platform-tests](https://github.com/w3c/web-platform-tests/blob/master/html/webappapis/atob/base64.html). | |
| Compatibility: Node.js version 3+ and all major browsers. | |
| Install with `npm`: | |
| ```sh | |
| npm install abab | |
| ``` | |
| ## API | |
| ### `btoa` (base64 encode) | |
| ```js | |
| const { btoa } = require('abab'); | |
| btoa('Hello, world!'); // 'SGVsbG8sIHdvcmxkIQ==' | |
| ``` | |
| ### `atob` (base64 decode) | |
| ```js | |
| const { atob } = require('abab'); | |
| atob('SGVsbG8sIHdvcmxkIQ=='); // 'Hello, world!' | |
| ``` | |
| #### Valid characters | |
| [Per the spec](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/webappapis.html#atob:dom-windowbase64-btoa-3), `btoa` will accept strings "containing only characters in the range `U+0000` to `U+00FF`." If passed a string with characters above `U+00FF`, `btoa` will return `null`. If `atob` is passed a string that is not base64-valid, it will also return `null`. In both cases when `null` is returned, the spec calls for throwing a `DOMException` of type `InvalidCharacterError`. | |
| ## Browsers | |
| If you want to include just one of the methods to save bytes in your client-side code, you can `require` the desired module directly. | |
| ```js | |
| const atob = require('abab/lib/atob'); | |
| const btoa = require('abab/lib/btoa'); | |
| ``` | |
| ## Development | |
| If you're **submitting a PR** or **deploying to npm**, please use the [checklists in CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#checklists). | |
| ## Remembering what `atob` and `btoa` stand for | |
| Base64 comes from IETF [RFC 4648](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648#section-4) (2006). | |
| - **`btoa`**, the encoder function, stands for **binary** to **ASCII**, meaning it converts any binary input into a subset of **ASCII** (Base64). | |
| - **`atob`**, the decoder function, converts **ASCII** (or Base64) to its original **binary** format. | |