The data: (» RFC 2397) stream wrapper is available since PHP 5.2.0.
Example #1 Print data:// contents
<?php
// prints "I love PHP"
echo file_get_contents('data://text/plain;base64,SSBsb3ZlIFBIUAo=');
?>
Example #2 Fetch the media type
<?php
$fp   = fopen('data://text/plain;base64,', 'r');
$meta = stream_get_meta_data($fp);
// prints "text/plain"
echo $meta['mediatype'];
?>
| Attribute | Supported | 
|---|---|
| Restricted by allow_url_fopen | No | 
| Restricted by allow_url_include | Yes | 
| Allows Reading | Yes | 
| Allows Writing | No | 
| Allows Appending | No | 
| Allows Simultaneous Reading and Writing | No | 
| Supports stat() | No | 
| Supports unlink() | No | 
| Supports rename() | No | 
| Supports mkdir() | No | 
| Supports rmdir() | No |