code: protected static CfDef cfdefFromString(String st) throws IOException
      {
          assert st != null;
          TDeserializer deserializer = new TDeserializer(new TBinaryProtocol.Factory());
          CfDef cfDef = new CfDef();
          try
          {
              deserializer.deserialize(cfDef, Hex.hexToBytes(st));
          }
          catch (TException e)
          {
              throw new IOException(e);
          }
          return cfDef;
      }
docs: convert string back to CfDef