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Learning how to utilize Bootstrap, I noticed that the thumbnails had strange markup for the image source (at least, strange to me.)

<img data-src="holder.js/260x120" alt="260x120" style="width: 260px; height: 120px;" src="data:image/png;base64,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">

What's going on here, and why is this being done? Is the image somehow saved to local storage at some point in base64?

To clarify, I'm asking about the src="image:/ part.

Ashley Ross
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Cody
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  • as far as I am aware: attributes prefixed with "data" are allowed. Lets you do things like save the thumbnail src for that image on the image element, for ease of operations later. – Colleen Jan 04 '13 at 23:12
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2450585/why-should-i-prepend-my-custom-attributes-with-data – Colleen Jan 04 '13 at 23:13
  • I know what the data attribute does, but I don't know how the image is being saved and embedded in that data attribute. – Cody Jan 04 '13 at 23:22
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    This: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2397.txt, wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_URI_scheme – Šime Vidas Jan 04 '13 at 23:23
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    @DoctorOreo You're confusing HTML5 `data-` attributes, with the `data:` URI scheme. Those are two completely different things. – Šime Vidas Jan 04 '13 at 23:26
  • Edit: OH, you're talking about something else. I know nothing about the data:URI scheme. – Colleen Jan 04 '13 at 23:26

2 Answers2

5

What you are seeing is not the HTML5 data- attribute, but the data URI scheme. To quote Wikipedia:

The data URI scheme ... provides a way to include data in-line in web pages as if they were external resources. This technique allows normally separate elements such as images and style sheets to be fetched in a single HTTP request rather than multiple HTTP requests, which can be more efficient.

What you're seeing is the base64-encoded image data, in this case a PNG. When browsers see this, they decode the data as instructed, and display it as if it were an external resource.

Given this image's size, the creators of Bootstrap rightly believe it is more efficient to inline the image like this rather than keeping it separate. Had they kept it separate, it would require an additional HTTP request to load the image, which increases the total load time of the page.

Ashley Ross
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0

In the case of Bootstrap, what I think you are seeing is Javascript being used to generate the data that goes in the src attribute.

If you look at the raw source (not the source in the inspector), you will probably not see the src attribute, only data-src.

The data-src attribute is an instruction to javascript to use the holder.js script to generate the data to go in the src.

So holder.js generates the image, which is then loaded into the img as a data uri as explained by the other answers.

ChrisJ
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