function base64_encode (data)
{        
    var b64 = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=";
    var o1, o2, o3, h1, h2, h3, h4, bits, i = 0, ac = 0, enc="", tmp_arr = [];
 
    if (!data) {
        return data;
    }
 
    data = this.utf8_encode(data+'');
    
    do { // pack three octets into four hexets
        o1 = data.charCodeAt(i++);
        o2 = data.charCodeAt(i++);
        o3 = data.charCodeAt(i++);
 
        bits = o1<<16 | o2<<8 | o3;
 
        h1 = bits>>18 & 0x3f;
        h2 = bits>>12 & 0x3f;
        h3 = bits>>6 & 0x3f;
        h4 = bits & 0x3f;
 
        // use hexets to index into b64, and append result to encoded string
        tmp_arr[ac++] = b64.charAt(h1) + b64.charAt(h2) + b64.charAt(h3) + b64.charAt(h4);
    } while (i < data.length);
    
    enc = tmp_arr.join('');
    
    switch (data.length % 3) {
        case 1:
            enc = enc.slice(0, -2) + '==';
        break;
        case 2:
            enc = enc.slice(0, -1) + '=';
        break;
    }
 
    return enc;
}