code: def request(self, url):
          
          self.logger.debug('url:\n' + url)
          try:
              response = urlopen(url)
              return json.loads(response.read().decode('utf-8'))
          except URLError:
              self.logger.info('Server connection problem')
          except Exception:
              self.logger.info('Server format problem')
docs: Send a http request to the given *url*, try to decode
          the reply assuming it's JSON in UTF-8, and return the result
  
          :returns: Decoded result, or None in case of an error
          :rtype: mixed