code: public static byte[] decodeByteArray(String value) throws ParseException {
  		try {
  			return Base64.decodeBase64(value.getBytes(UTF8_ENCODING));
  		} catch(UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
  			throw new MappingException("Could not decode byteArray to UTF8 encoding", e);
  		}
  
  	}
docs: Decodes byte[] value from the string representation created using encodeDate(..) function.
  
  @param value
  string representation of the date value
  @return original byte[] value