下面是直接用JavaScript实现的代码。但是，如前所述，使用JavaScript库会更好。我最喜欢jQuery。

在下面的例子中，调用一个ASPX页面(作为穷人的REST服务)来返回一个JavaScript JSON对象。

var xmlHttp = null;

function GetCustomerInfo()
{
    var CustomerNumber = document.getElementById( "TextBoxCustomerNumber" ).value;
    var Url = "GetCustomerInfoAsJson.aspx?number=" + CustomerNumber;

    xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); 
    xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = ProcessRequest;
    xmlHttp.open( "GET", Url, true );
    xmlHttp.send( null );
}

function ProcessRequest() 
{
    if ( xmlHttp.readyState == 4 && xmlHttp.status == 200 ) 
    {
        if ( xmlHttp.responseText == "Not found" ) 
        {
            document.getElementById( "TextBoxCustomerName"    ).value = "Not found";
            document.getElementById( "TextBoxCustomerAddress" ).value = "";
        }
        else
        {
            var info = eval ( "(" + xmlHttp.responseText + ")" );

            // No parsing necessary with JSON!        
            document.getElementById( "TextBoxCustomerName"    ).value = info.jsonData[ 0 ].cmname;
            document.getElementById( "TextBoxCustomerAddress" ).value = info.jsonData[ 0 ].cmaddr1;
        }                    
    }
}

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;
});

jQuery:

$.get(
    "somepage.php",
    {paramOne : 1, paramX : 'abc'},
    function(data) {
       alert('page content: ' + data);
    }
);

如果希望将代码用于Dashboard小部件，并且不希望在创建的每个小部件中都包含JavaScript库，那么可以使用Safari本机支持的对象XMLHttpRequest。

据Andrew Hedges报道，默认情况下，小部件不能访问网络;你需要改变信息中的设置。与小部件关联的Plist。

// Create a request variable and assign a new XMLHttpRequest object to it.
var request = new XMLHttpRequest()

// Open a new connection, using the GET request on the URL endpoint
request.open('GET', 'restUrl', true)

request.onload = function () {
  // Begin accessing JSON data here
}

// Send request
request.send()

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