base64 that actually encodes URL safe (no '=' nonsense)

encode.py

"""
base64's `urlsafe_b64encode` uses '=' as padding.
These are not URL safe when used in URL paramaters.
Functions below work around this to strip/add back in padding.

See:
https://docs.python.org/2/library/base64.html
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-bugs-list/2007-February/037195.html
"""

import base64


def base64_encode(string):
    """
    Removes any `=` used as padding from the encoded string.
    """
    encoded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(string)
    return encoded.rstrip("=")


def base64_decode(string):
    """
    Adds back in the required padding before decoding.
    """
    padding = 4 - (len(string) % 4)
    string = string + ("=" * padding)
    return base64.urlsafe_b64decode(string)

example

>>> test = "helloworld"
>>> encode_base64(test)
'aGVsbG93b3JsZA'
>>> e = encode_base64(test)
>>> decode_base64(e)
'helloworld'
>>> test = "Hello World"
>>> encoded = encode_base64(test)
>>> print encoded
SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ
>>> decoded = decode_base64(encoded)
>>> decoded
'Hello World'
>>> decoded == test
True

while this is a nice workaround, I don't believe it's the "correct" way to do it anymore. Padding isn't the only thing that can break base64 encoding as it may use 0 - 9 , a - z , A - Z , + , and /. + is a special URL char (meaning a space) and / of course is another special URL char. So you'd have to take care of those yourself as well via string replacement. I don't recommend this route as at some point the standards of something may change. Better to let the libraries handle all of this stuff for you. There are 3 things that might help and be safer.

(1) Instead of stripping the padding you can use the following functions:

base64.urlsafe_b64encode(s)
Encode [bytes-like object](https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-bytes-like-object) s using the URL- and filesystem-safe alphabet, which substitutes - instead of + and _ instead of / in the standard Base64 alphabet, and return the encoded [bytes](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#bytes). The result can still contain =.

base64.urlsafe_b64decode(s)
Decode [bytes-like object](https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-bytes-like-object) or ASCII string s using the URL- and filesystem-safe alphabet, which substitutes - instead of + and _ instead of / in the standard Base64 alphabet, and return the decoded [bytes](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#bytes).

(2) These functions aren't really necessary. The correct way to do this would be to not build your URL using raw base64 encoded stuff and string concatenation. instead something like:

requests.get(http://example.com, params = {"base64_encoded_param" : base_64_param})

Requests, along with any other decent URL library will then percent encode these for the URL for you. No need to keep track of what needs to be percent-encoded etc.

(3) Use base58 encoding. The allowed charset is A-Z and the digits 1-9. Base58 excludes zero, uppercase 'O', uppercase 'I', and lowercase 'l'. In other words, no padding, no funny chars. Just A-Z and 1-9. It requires an additional library as I don't think there's a standard lib module yet, but I usually find it well worth it to just deal with ascii-range and no special char stuff.

Here are 2 one-liners for encoding and decoding:

(lambda string: urlsafe_b64encode(string).strip(b"="))(b"this will be converted into base64!")

(lambda string: urlsafe_b64decode((string+(b"="*(4-(len(string)%4))))))(b"this will be converted back into base64!")

---

Examples:

Encoding:

>>> (lambda string: urlsafe_b64encode(string).strip(b"="))(b"this will be converted into base64!")
b'dGhpcyB3aWxsIGJlIGNvbnZlcnRlZCBpbnRvIGJhc2U2NCE'

Decoding

>>> (lambda string: urlsafe_b64decode((string+(b"="*(4-(len(string)%4))))))(b'dGhpcyB3aWxsIGJlIGNvbnZlcnRlZCBpbnRvIGJhc2U2NCE')
b'this will be converted into base64!'

Note

It does require base64's urlsafe_b64encode and urlsafe_b64decode to be imported like this

from base64 import urlsafe_b64encode, urlsafe_b64decode

This can be easily changed, as all you need to do is change the calls to the functions (right after (lambda string:)