How to retrieve a MediaStream from a Blob url?

Question

It was possible to get an URL using window.URL.createObjectURL() from a stream like in below code.

navigator.getUserMedia({ video: true, audio: true }, function (localMediaStream) {

    var video = document.querySelector('video');
    video.src = window.URL.createObjectURL(localMediaStream);
    video.onloadedmetadata = function (e) {
        // Do something with the video here.
    };
}, 
function (err) {
    console.log("The following error occured: " + err);
}
);

Problem is now I have a blob URL like:

blob:http%3A//localhost%3A1560/f43bed15-da6c-4ff1-b73c-5640ed94e8ee

Is there a way to retrieve the MediaStream object from that?

Answer 1

Note:

URL.createObjectURL(MediaStream) has been deprecated. Do not use it in code anymore, it will throw in any recent browsers.
The premise of the question is still valid though.

---

---

There is no built in way to retrieve the original object a blob URL points to.

With Blobs, we can still fetch this blob URL and we'll get a copy of the original Blob.

const blob = new Blob(['hello']);
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

fetch(url)
  .then(r => r.blob())
  .then(async (copy) => {
    console.log('same Blobs?', copy === blob);
    const blob_arr = new Uint8Array(await new Response(blob).arrayBuffer());
    const copy_arr = new Uint8Array(await new Response(copy).arrayBuffer());
    console.log("same content?", JSON.stringify(blob_arr) === JSON.stringify(copy_arr))
    console.log(JSON.stringify(copy_arr));
  })

With other objects though, this won't work...

const source = new MediaSource();
const url = URL.createObjectURL(source);

fetch(url)
  .then(r => r.blob())
  .then(console.log)
  .catch(console.error);

The only way then is to keep track of your original objects.

To do so, we can come up with simple wrappers around createObjectURL and revokeObjectURL to update a dictionary of objects accessible by URL:

(() => {
  // overrides URL methods to be able to retrieve the original blobs later on
  const old_create = URL.createObjectURL;
  const old_revoke = URL.revokeObjectURL;
  Object.defineProperty(URL, 'createObjectURL', {
    get: () => storeAndCreate
  });
  Object.defineProperty(URL, 'revokeObjectURL', {
    get: () => forgetAndRevoke
  });
  Object.defineProperty(URL, 'getFromObjectURL', {
    get: () => getBlob
  });
  const dict = {};

  function storeAndCreate(blob) {
    var url = old_create(blob); // let it throw if it has to
    dict[url] = blob;
    return url
  }

  function forgetAndRevoke(url) {
    old_revoke(url);
    // some checks just because it's what the question titel asks for, and well to avoid deleting bad things
    try {
      if(new URL(url).protocol === 'blob:')
        delete dict[url];
    }catch(e){} // avoided deleting some bad thing ;)
  }

  function getBlob(url) {
    return dict[url];
  }
})();

// a few example uses

// first a simple Blob
test(new Blob(['foo bar']));

// A more complicated MediaSource
test(new MediaSource());

function test(original) {
  const url = URL.createObjectURL(original);
  const retrieved = URL.getFromObjectURL(url);
  console.log('retrieved: ', retrieved);
  console.log('is same object: ', retrieved === original);
  URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
}