MD5

The MD5 utility provides a function to generate MD5 hash values from strings. This is useful for creating checksums, simple password hashing (though not recommended for production security), or generating unique identifiers based on content.

Dependencies

This component has no external dependencies beyond the core Metro UI library.

Usage

Basic Usage

// Generate an MD5 hash of a string
var hash = Metro.md5("Hello, world!");
console.log(hash); // "6cd3556deb0da54bca060b4c39479839"

Function

Metro.md5(string)

Calculates the MD5 hash of the provided string.

Parameters

• string (string): The input string to hash

Returns

• (string): The MD5 hash as a lowercase hexadecimal string

Examples

Basic Usage

// Generate a simple hash
var hash = Metro.md5("Hello, world!");
console.log(hash); // "6cd3556deb0da54bca060b4c39479839"

Hashing User Input

// Hash user input (for demonstration purposes only)
$("#hashButton").on("click", function(){
    var input = $("#textInput").val();
    var hash = Metro.md5(input);
    $("#hashOutput").text(hash);
});

Creating a Content Checksum

// Create a checksum for content verification
function verifyContent(content, expectedHash) {
    var actualHash = Metro.md5(content);
    return actualHash === expectedHash;
}

// Usage
if (verifyContent(downloadedData, "a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0")) {
    console.log("Content verified successfully");
} else {
    console.log("Content may be corrupted or tampered with");
}

Generating a Unique ID Based on Content

// Generate a unique ID for a data object
function generateContentId(data) {
    return Metro.md5(JSON.stringify(data));
}

// Usage
var userData = {
    name: "John Doe",
    email: "john@example.com",
    timestamp: Date.now()
};

var userId = generateContentId(userData);
console.log("Generated user ID:", userId);

Important Notes

1. Security Considerations: MD5 is considered cryptographically broken and unsuitable for security applications where collision resistance is important. For secure password hashing, use dedicated password hashing functions like bcrypt, Argon2, or PBKDF2.

2. Performance: The MD5 algorithm is relatively fast, making it suitable for non-security applications like checksums or content verification.

3. Deterministic Output: The same input will always produce the same output hash, which is a 32-character hexadecimal string.

4. Character Encoding: The function handles UTF-8 encoding internally, so it properly processes international characters.

5. Case Sensitivity: The input string is case-sensitive, and the output hash is returned in lowercase.