I wrote a little code sample which:

• load images
• manipulate DOM (replace images)
• store/retrieve related data using localStorage

Javascript:

$(document).on('ready', function(){

  $('#chooseFile').on('click', function (e) {
    url = $('#image-url').val();
    
    // check if it's empty
        if (url === "")
            alert('Please type a URL');     

        url = addHTTP(url);
        
    if (checkURL(url)){

      // get image size (and save dimensions in local storage)
      getImageDimensions(url, updateBackgroundDimensions);
      
      localStorage.setItem('myImageURL', url);
      updateBackgroundImage(url);

      $('#fileModal').modal('hide');
    }else{
      alert('Not a valid image!');
    }
  });
  
  $('#resetImage').on('click', function (e) {
    window.localStorage.clear();
    location.reload();
  });
  
  checkLocalStorage();
});

function checkLocalStorage(){
  if(localStorage.getItem('myImageURL') &&
    localStorage.getItem('myImageURLWidth') &&
    localStorage.getItem('myImageURLHeight')) {

    updateBackgroundDimensions(localStorage.getItem('myImageURLWidth'),localStorage.getItem('myImageURLHeight'));
    updateBackgroundImage(localStorage.getItem('myImageURL'));
  }
}

function updateBackgroundDimensions(w, h){
  $('#image').css('width', w);
  $('#image').css('height', h);
  $('#image').css('background-size', w + 'px ' + h + 'px');
}

function updateBackgroundImage(url){
  $('#image').css('background-image', 'url('+url+')');
}

function getImageDimensions(url, callback){
  var img = $('<img src="'+url+'"/>').load(function(){
    localStorage.setItem('myImageURLWidth', this.width);
    localStorage.setItem('myImageURLHeight', this.height);
    callback(this.width, this.height);
  });
}

function addHTTP(url) {
   if (!/^(f|ht)tps?:\/\//i.test(url)) {
      url = "http://" + url;
   }
   return url;
}

function checkURL(url) {
    return(url.match(/\.(jpeg|jpg|gif|png)$/) !== null);
}

Full demo here: http://embed.plnkr.co/hTecMEP9VB300qNhzB2D/preview

It works, but many parts could be improved. To begin with:

1. I believe these lines should be together, maybe wrapped into a function:

   localStorage.setItem('myImageURLWidth', this.width); localStorage.setItem('myImageURLHeight', this.height);

   and

   localStorage.setItem('myImageURL', url);

   ...but they aren't, because in order to know the image's width and height, the image must be loaded beforehand. And it wouldn't make sense to pass the image's url along for the callback function updateBackgroundDimensions() to use it.

2. For the same reason,

updateBackgroundImage(url);

and

updateBackgroundDimensions();

also aren't together.

3. Are there recommended practices for separating localStorage related code (ex: checkURL() and addHTTP()) into a module or something?

These are the main points that bother me now. If there's anything else not mentioned that could be improved, I'd love to hear.

obs: I'd preferably handle these situations without an external library, using only JavaScript, but if there are some helpful ones, they're also welcome.