How to get ‘base64 bytes data in PHP”

Question

How can I get the base64 data properly in PHP from a submitted data?

The data being passed via POST method

I want to access the base64 bytes sent on FORM submission.

$data = $_FILES["image"]['tmp_name'];
$data = preg_replace('#^data:image/\w+;base64,#i', '', $data);
$data = base64_decode($data); 

I am getting error message :

"Your data could not be encoded because it contains invalid UTF8 characters."

Answer 1

I think you are using the wrong variable.

As statend in the documentation:

$_FILES["image"]['tmp_name'] contains the temporary filename of the file in which the uploaded file was stored on the server.

If you want to get the file contents, you should try:

$data = file_get_contents($_FILES["image"]['tmp_name']);

Which will give you the binary contents of the file.

Answer 2

My guess is that we wish to store base64 data, and maybe this expression would do so for a single sample:

data:.+;base64,(.*)

Example

$re = '/data:.+;base64,(.*)/m';
$str = 'data:image/jpeg;base64,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';
$subst = '$1';

$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);

echo $result;

Output

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a

Demo

If you might be trying to get the entire data, including for instance data:image/jpeg;base64, or data:image/png;base64,, you can simply use this expression,

(data:.+;base64,.*)

Reference