# Data URLs

Leo Savernik

    l.savernik@aon.at

2003-02-06

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.