你也可以用纯JS来做:

// Create the XHR object.
function createCORSRequest(method, url) {
  var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
if ("withCredentials" in xhr) {
// XHR for Chrome/Firefox/Opera/Safari.
xhr.open(method, url, true);
} else if (typeof XDomainRequest != "undefined") {
// XDomainRequest for IE.
xhr = new XDomainRequest();
xhr.open(method, url);
} else {
// CORS not supported.
xhr = null;
}
return xhr;
}

// Make the actual CORS request.
function makeCorsRequest() {
 // This is a sample server that supports CORS.
 var url = 'http://html5rocks-cors.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/index.html';

var xhr = createCORSRequest('GET', url);
if (!xhr) {
alert('CORS not supported');
return;
}

// Response handlers.
xhr.onload = function() {
var text = xhr.responseText;
alert('Response from CORS request to ' + url + ': ' + text);
};

xhr.onerror = function() {
alert('Woops, there was an error making the request.');
};

xhr.send();
}

详见:html5rocks教程

Ajax

你最好使用Prototype或jQuery这样的库。

我不熟悉Mac OS的Dashcode小部件，但如果他们让你使用JavaScript库和支持xmlhttprequest，我会使用jQuery，做这样的事情:

var page_content;
$.get( "somepage.php", function(data){
    page_content = data;
});

<button type="button" onclick="loadXMLDoc()"> GET CONTENT</button>

 <script>
        function loadXMLDoc() {
            var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
            var url = "<Enter URL>";``
            xmlhttp.onload = function () {
                if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == "200") {
                    document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = this.responseText;
                }
            }
            xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);
            xmlhttp.send();
        }
    </script>

在纯javascript和返回一个承诺:

  httpRequest = (url, method = 'GET') => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
      xhr.open(method, url);
      xhr.onload = () => {
        if (xhr.status === 200) { resolve(xhr.responseText); }
        else { reject(new Error(xhr.responseText)); }
      };
      xhr.send();
    });
  }

对于那些使用AngularJs的人来说，它是$http.get:

$http.get('/someUrl').
  success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    // this callback will be called asynchronously
    // when the response is available
  }).
  error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    // called asynchronously if an error occurs
    // or server returns response with an error status.
  });