Was just working on something similar this morning. As an fyi you can avoid the string replacing in the base64 string by using `.toBase64({ alphabet: "base64url" })` and `fromBase64({ alphabet: "base64url"})`.
Per the spec [0], a URL can hold at least 8,000 characters.
> It is RECOMMENDED that all senders and recipients support, at a minimum, URIs with lengths of 8000 octets in protocol elements. Note that this implies some structures and on-wire representations (for example, the request line in HTTP/1.1) will necessarily be larger in some cases.
Mainstream browsers support at least 64,000 characters [1], and Chrome supports up to 2MB [2].
I guess the surveillance industry has enough incentives to make this ever larger, so they can fit more utm-trackers, campaign-ids, referal trackers and whatnot in URLs.
It's truly insane how large typical share-URLS for content on instagram, youtube or any other large platforms are. URLs that could've been example.com/t/some-large-enough-id?time=13337 are stuffed with hundreds of characters, just to gather more data on people using these links.
> Per the spec [0], a URL can hold at least 8,000 characters.
> It is RECOMMENDED that all senders and recipients support, at a minimum, URIs with lengths of 8000 octets in protocol elements.
It is always worth remembering that, unless you have already ensured that the content has been rendered into a URI-safe subset of ASCII, a character and an octet are not the same thing.
I really like this from a privacy point of view. So much so that I'm thinking about adding a purely URL-storage solution as an option in my https://kraa.io editor.
I recently build a small framework to create JavaScript apps that use this kind of URL sharing and therefore don’t require a backend: https://github.com/grothkopp/lost.js
Think you've inadvertently found a way to provide extra tests for mobile devices.
The Crime and Punishment one consistently crashes Brave mobile for me. I assume it's the length of the URL - and seen another commentator say the same for chrome mobile (sure they both use the same codebase so likely an upstream issue).
I made something similar once, specifically targetted for guitar tablature https://tabviewer.app/
To make links shorter for sharing with others, I use a shortlink service. Pasting URLs of thousands of characters long can be problematic
In Firefox, https://textarea.my shows up as as a completely static non-actionable white page. Just white, with default cursor. No errors on the console.
A few weeks ago I vibe coded a guitar tab editor just because I wanted to share a quick tab in a chat group with my band. When the first prototype already worked great, I just couldn’t stop to add features so that it now even has mouseover chord diagrams and copy and paste.
The sharing works just like here, by encoding the tab itself in the url.
Thanks for sharing! I tried a similar content-in-url approach for a family grocery list app but I couldn't get the url that short. (It worked but it was a bit cumbersome sharing over Whatsapp.) Will see what I can learn from this!
I created a similar app just 2 days ago targeting Whatsapp (https://linqshare.com) . Context: In my locality, EA, we normally have Whatsapp groups raising funds for whatever reason; for every content edit, the admin has to copy-edit-paste updated content(which contains name and amount) to the group. This small app intends to provide a table that's easy to convey this info. App stores content in the url but a preview image (needed for Whatsapp share) is stored at R2. Let me know if you want the source code running at Cloudflare.
love it, funny enough, I had similar idea pop into my head some weeks ago, just to be able to store quick notes and favorite them in my browser for later
I like these kinds of projects, but adding a file export/import is inevitable. It's less about the limits of a URL and more about practicality.
I also have no way to confirm that URLs aren't logged server side, so I'd never trust the claim about "no tracking". That's why these projects also end up self-hosted.
Typos and URL mangles are common though, and I'd still have no way to confirm if it got logged in that case. It's out of scope for anything in the github source, and instead depends on the server hosting the page. I know this isn't meant to be super secure, but it's still worth a mention.
Typos aren't making the hash part turn into something else. Like your parent comment explained to you, the hash part is not sent to the server. If you go out of your way to mangle the URL then of course a mangled URL without hash will likely get logged to the server. But I'm not sure how one would manage to go so much out of the way that they mangle the URL in a way that removes the hash.
Funny how I made almost exactly the same but for maps.
I needed a way to share a link to a map, with drawings and the ability for the receiver to see their own location on the map.
Annotated screenshots solves the first but not the second.
Vibe engineered this, with many of the same ideas as OP.
Took an evening. Just in time apps for one specific use case is a thing.
And because it's so cheap to make and can be hosted cheaply with no backend, it can be given away for free.
https://nyman.re/mapdraw/#l=60.172108%2C24.941458&z=16&d=LU8...
Was just working on something similar this morning. As an fyi you can avoid the string replacing in the base64 string by using `.toBase64({ alphabet: "base64url" })` and `fromBase64({ alphabet: "base64url"})`.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
Per the spec [0], a URL can hold at least 8,000 characters.
> It is RECOMMENDED that all senders and recipients support, at a minimum, URIs with lengths of 8000 octets in protocol elements. Note that this implies some structures and on-wire representations (for example, the request line in HTTP/1.1) will necessarily be larger in some cases.
Mainstream browsers support at least 64,000 characters [1], and Chrome supports up to 2MB [2].
[0]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110#section-4.1-5
[1]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/417184/
[2]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/s...
Chrome limit is 2MB, Firefox is 1MB, WebKit is no limit.
Here is the Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
- https://medv.io/goto/crime-and-punishment-by-fyodor-dostoevs...
For what it's worth, there might be a 2GB limit on the iOS side.
https://github.com/swiftlang/swift-corelibs-foundation/blob/...
LOL Tapping the address bar crashed my Chrome on mobile.
loaded OK for me on mobile safari.
Loaded fine for me too -- but like parent, tapping the address bar to share afterwards crashed it on Android here :)
Works fine on Win11 Edge
I guess the surveillance industry has enough incentives to make this ever larger, so they can fit more utm-trackers, campaign-ids, referal trackers and whatnot in URLs.
It's truly insane how large typical share-URLS for content on instagram, youtube or any other large platforms are. URLs that could've been example.com/t/some-large-enough-id?time=13337 are stuffed with hundreds of characters, just to gather more data on people using these links.
> Per the spec [0], a URL can hold at least 8,000 characters.
> It is RECOMMENDED that all senders and recipients support, at a minimum, URIs with lengths of 8000 octets in protocol elements.
It is always worth remembering that, unless you have already ensured that the content has been rendered into a URI-safe subset of ASCII, a character and an octet are not the same thing.
Very good point indeed. In the worst case scenario, you would only have 1/5th of that capacity
I really like this from a privacy point of view. So much so that I'm thinking about adding a purely URL-storage solution as an option in my https://kraa.io editor.
From a privacy point of view how is it any better than just using a local, native text editor?
I recently build a small framework to create JavaScript apps that use this kind of URL sharing and therefore don’t require a backend: https://github.com/grothkopp/lost.js
Think you've inadvertently found a way to provide extra tests for mobile devices.
The Crime and Punishment one consistently crashes Brave mobile for me. I assume it's the length of the URL - and seen another commentator say the same for chrome mobile (sure they both use the same codebase so likely an upstream issue).
I made something similar once, specifically targetted for guitar tablature https://tabviewer.app/ To make links shorter for sharing with others, I use a shortlink service. Pasting URLs of thousands of characters long can be problematic
Wow funny I‘m just seeing this after posting my tab editor in another comment. I have the same use case as you :)
https://github.com/planbnet/guitartabs
I wrote a similar app when mathbin was shutting down. It allows about 1500 characters of mathjax-displayed notes. [1]
[1]: https://davidlowryduda.com/mathshare/
This is very interesting, very refreshing, very simple and clever, very well done, very everything good. Bravo and thank you.
Nice! I love this.
I built Ponder in the same vein. It, however, has 10 files. I did not use the URL, did not have double the fun, and now I’m sad.
https://github.com/codazoda/ponder
shameless plug: i built something very similar but nobody cared: https://github.com/AlexW00/Buffertab
Are <head>, <body>, and </html> missing intentionally?
Safari 15.6.1: Unhandled Promise Rejection: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: CompressionStream
I probably shouldn’t presume to speak for the OP, but given that they’re optional, I would think so, yes.
My own plug, translate between SQL dialects, state stored in URL so you can share it:
https://sqlscope.netlify.app/
In Firefox, https://textarea.my shows up as as a completely static non-actionable white page. Just white, with default cursor. No errors on the console.
A few weeks ago I vibe coded a guitar tab editor just because I wanted to share a quick tab in a chat group with my band. When the first prototype already worked great, I just couldn’t stop to add features so that it now even has mouseover chord diagrams and copy and paste.
The sharing works just like here, by encoding the tab itself in the url.
https://github.com/planbnet/guitartabs
Nice! I made a similar thing but the html for the text editor fits in a data uri, so it can be a bookmark or new tab page for taking quick notes
https://gist.github.com/smcllns/8b727361ce4cf55cbc017faaefbb...
I love this.
Now if you bootstrap the app code into the url too then you can have a minimal kernel to run any machine in url.
Then you can also make a Quine somehow.
Amazing. The crime and punishment example crashed my iPhone’s Google Chrome when I tap the URL haha
In case you missed it: it is possible to style textarea via CSS and share it.
- https://textarea.my/#TYuxDcIwEEWpmeKUCiSIJQoKU0KFRBUWOGwnWDi...
Thanks for sharing! I tried a similar content-in-url approach for a family grocery list app but I couldn't get the url that short. (It worked but it was a bit cumbersome sharing over Whatsapp.) Will see what I can learn from this!
I created a similar app just 2 days ago targeting Whatsapp (https://linqshare.com) . Context: In my locality, EA, we normally have Whatsapp groups raising funds for whatever reason; for every content edit, the admin has to copy-edit-paste updated content(which contains name and amount) to the group. This small app intends to provide a table that's easy to convey this info. App stores content in the url but a preview image (needed for Whatsapp share) is stored at R2. Let me know if you want the source code running at Cloudflare.
--edit-- test link: https://linqshare.com/#eJxtkM9KxDAQxl-lzLmHrv8Ova3IHlz04BY8F...
I have a similar one using localStorage https://github.com/mkaz/browser-pad
546,229 character-length URL for the Crime and Punishment example.
Half a megabyte for a URL. That certainly is a thing.
Just started making my own recently with CodeMirror 6 during holidays. No saving function for now: https://qbane.github.io/cgm
Love your other tools, btw!
Thanks!
Can you make it monospace by default, so that this can be used as a code snippet bin?
Sure! textarea.my support custom style attr: https://textarea.my/#Ky4tSlVUyCotLlEoLUhJLElVKC6pzElVSCwpKWJ...
How do you share after that? I can open devtools and change the attribute but the URL doesn't update after that.
Try https://a10z.co/note
It would be neat if ctrl+s offered to download the textarea to a .txt file.
love it, funny enough, I had similar idea pop into my head some weeks ago, just to be able to store quick notes and favorite them in my browser for later
https://textarea.my/#Cy4tsAcA
https://textarea.my/#Cy4tsOfi8ssvUcgtTc7QU_DIz0stLsmpVPBUSK0...
https://textarea.my/#ZY_NTgMhFIVd9ylYNZpMuQwDmZ9m4qM0SG9ncCg...
Now what if it didn't pollute browser history
The only thing missing is markdown and few themes. I think this is awesome idea for sharing. Love what you did with it.
Love it!
Can you save anything?
https://textarea.my/#i0wtBgA=
No that should be: https://textarea.my/#c8yrLMnIzEsHAA==
Not OP: sure, just bookmark it
kinda -- but then you have to re-bookmark it every time you update it...
It also saves to localStorage
I like these kinds of projects, but adding a file export/import is inevitable. It's less about the limits of a URL and more about practicality.
I also have no way to confirm that URLs aren't logged server side, so I'd never trust the claim about "no tracking". That's why these projects also end up self-hosted.
hash part of url only available in the browser, as far as I know, server doesn’t have access to # value
very easy for the server to intentionally (or by compromise) add a one liner to send the hash text up.
Typos and URL mangles are common though, and I'd still have no way to confirm if it got logged in that case. It's out of scope for anything in the github source, and instead depends on the server hosting the page. I know this isn't meant to be super secure, but it's still worth a mention.
Typos aren't making the hash part turn into something else. Like your parent comment explained to you, the hash part is not sent to the server. If you go out of your way to mangle the URL then of course a mangled URL without hash will likely get logged to the server. But I'm not sure how one would manage to go so much out of the way that they mangle the URL in a way that removes the hash.