in datahub/utils/converters.py [0:0]
def to_binary(text, encoding='utf-8'):
if text is None:
return text
if isinstance(text, six.text_type):
return text.encode(encoding)
elif isinstance(text, (six.binary_type, bytearray)):
return bytes(text)
return str(text).encode(encoding) if six.PY3 else str(text)