code: def read_binary(self, key, b64decode=True, decode=False):
          
          data = None
          if key is not None:
              data = self.db.read(key.strip())
              if data is not None:
                  data = json.loads(data)
                  if b64decode:
                      # if requested decode the base64 string
                      data = base64.b64decode(data)
                      if decode:
                          try:
                              # if requested decode bytes to a string
                              data = data.decode('utf-8')
                          except UnicodeDecodeError:
                              # for data written an upstream java App
                              data = data.decode('latin-1')
          else:
              self.tcex.log.warning(u'The key field was None.')
          return data
docs: Read method of CRUD operation for binary data.
  
          Args:
              key (string): The variable to read from the DB.
              b64decode (bool): If true the data will be base64 decoded.
              decode (bool): If true the data will be decoded to a String.
  
          Returns:
              (bytes|string): Results retrieved from DB.