code: public static String hash(final String str)
          {
          try
              {
              final MessageDigest md = new Sha1();
              final byte[] hashed = md.digest(str.getBytes("UTF-8"));
              final byte[] encoded = Base64.encodeBase64(hashed);
              return new String(encoded, "UTF-8");
              }
          catch (final UnsupportedEncodingException e)
              {
              LOG.error("Encoding error??", e);
              return "";
              }
          }
docs: Creates a base 64 encoded SHA-1 hash of the specified string.
  
  @param str The string to hash.
  @return The hashed and encoded string.