Passing a byte array to webservice

I am using IS 4.6 and have a webservice connector built from a WAS 5 wsdl file which has a parameter defined as <element>. The binding type is SOAP_MSG. In the connector input/output tab, the input variable “file” shows up as a String List. I am using getFile service to output bytes of an Excel file but can’t really use this to pass to the String list “file” input variable. I have too questions, (1) Is IS 4.6 creating the correct input variable from the wsdl (2) If yes, how do I convert the bytes to a String List?