content: Function Host_Request(url)
  
      xfer = CreateObject("roURLTransfer")
      'xfer.setCertificatesFile("pkg:/source/cacert.pem")
      'xfer.InitClientCertificates()
      'there may need to be a certificates file to be used for each http POST if we decide to add
      'more security. this is how it would be done.
      xfer.setURL(url)
      'create a url transfer object to make the http POST
      urlresponse = xfer.GetToString()
      'makes the post and returns the raw string
      return xml_parse(urlresponse)
      'pass the string to the xml parser
  End Function
  
  
  Function xml_parse(response)
      xml = CreateObject("roXMLElement")
      'creates and object of type xml
      if xml.Parse(response)
          Ids = CreateObject("roAssociativeArray")
          Ids["host_id"] = xml.host_id.getText()
          Ids["session_id"] = xml.mn_session_id.getText()
          return Ids
              else 
                  return getID()
          end if
          'if the xml parses returns an array of session and host data, else it returns the uniqueID
  End Function
  
  