//takes a string and converts it to a cert object
    //string has to have line breaks!
    public static X509Certificate decodeCert(String certString) throws Exception {
        byte[] der = Base64.getDecoder().decode(certString.getBytes());

        String LINE_SEPARATOR = System.getProperty("line.separator");
        String BEGIN_CERT = "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n";
        String END_CERT = "\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----";

        Base64.Encoder encoder = Base64.getMimeEncoder(64, LINE_SEPARATOR.getBytes());

        String encodedCertText = new String(encoder.encode(der));

        String fullCertString = BEGIN_CERT + encodedCertText + END_CERT;

        CertificateFactory fact = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509");
        InputStream is = new ByteArrayInputStream(fullCertString.getBytes());
        return (X509Certificate) fact.generateCertificate(is);
    }

    //takes a cert object and converts it to a string
    public static String encodeCert(X509Certificate cert) throws Exception {
        return new String(Base64.getEncoder().encode(cert.getEncoded()));
    }