HTTP GET request in JavaScript?

 Browsers (and Dashcode) provide an XMLHttpRequest object which can be used to make HTTP requests from JavaScript:

function httpGet(theUrl)
{
    var xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xmlHttp.open( "GET", theUrl, false ); // false for synchronous request
    xmlHttp.send( null );
    return xmlHttp.responseText;
}

However, synchronous requests are discouraged and will generate a warning along the lines of:

You should make an asynchronous request and handle the response inside an event handler.

function httpGetAsync(theUrl, callback)
{
    var xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = function() { 
        if (xmlHttp.readyState == 4 && xmlHttp.status == 200)
            callback(xmlHttp.responseText);
    }
    xmlHttp.open("GET", theUrl, true); // true for asynchronous 
    xmlHttp.send(null);
}