Data Uris and File Links

[blogfre3]

I was wondering if I could let people select a file from their computer and I make a data uri (google.com/search?q=data+uri) for them to share. Is this "file hosting" and is it allowed.

 

[essellar]

No, it wouldn't be file hosting unless you retained the file. Essentially, you're just base64-encoding and tacking on a MIME type. HOWEVER, you would need to upload the file to begin with so that you can encode it (even if you're immediately killing it), and you may get auto-flagged for having a public uploader. So you may need to go through a dispute cycle before an official "okey-dokey" is recorded somewhere.

 

[blogfre3]

I can encode it without uploading using the HTML5 File Api (google.com/search?q=html5+file+api)

 

[essellar]

Okay -- I seem to have missed a beat there. You want to host the data URIs on your site, rather than just provide a utility to create them? That would be file hosting; no different, really, from storing hosted files as BLOBs in a database. A utility would be okay -- there are a lot of people who would like to, say, create stylesheets or HTML image tags, don't know how to base64-encode (or never seem to be able to keep the params straight themselves) who either want to reduce HTTP requests or are restricted to text files only (or ridiculously small numbers of files) by their provider (particularly ISPs who still offer a "free" home page). Providing a conversion facility would be cool. But if you are retaining the files on your site in any form, you're hosting the files, and that's against the ToS.