diff --git a/src/helma/scripting/rhino/GlobalObject.java b/src/helma/scripting/rhino/GlobalObject.java
index e8e5790e..1859d3ef 100644
--- a/src/helma/scripting/rhino/GlobalObject.java
+++ b/src/helma/scripting/rhino/GlobalObject.java
@@ -21,9 +21,18 @@ import helma.framework.core.*;
 import helma.objectmodel.*;
 import helma.objectmodel.db.*;
 import helma.util.HtmlEncoder;
+import helma.util.MimePart;
 import org.mozilla.javascript.*;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Date;
+import java.util.Locale;
+import java.util.TimeZone;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLConnection;
+import java.text.*;
+import java.io.*;
 
 /**
  * 
@@ -49,7 +58,7 @@ public class GlobalObject extends ScriptableObject {
                                    "renderSkin", "renderSkinAsString", "getProperty",
                                    "authenticate", "createSkin", "format", "encode",
                                    "encodeXml", "encodeForm", "stripTags",
-                                   "getDBConnection"
+                                   "getDBConnection", "getURL"
                                };
 
         defineFunctionProperties(globalFuncs, GlobalObject.class, 0);
@@ -207,6 +216,85 @@ public class GlobalObject extends ScriptableObject {
     }
 
 
+    public Object getURL(String location, Object opt) {
+            if (location ==  null) {
+                return null;
+            }
+
+            try {
+                URL url = new URL(location);
+                URLConnection con = url.openConnection();
+
+                // do we have if-modified-since or etag headers to set?
+                if (opt != null && opt != Undefined.instance) {
+                    if (opt instanceof Scriptable) {
+                        Scriptable scr = (Scriptable) opt;
+                        if ("Date".equals(scr.getClassName())) {
+                            Date date = new Date((long) ScriptRuntime.toNumber(scr));
+
+                            con.setIfModifiedSince(date.getTime());
+
+                            SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz",
+                                                                       Locale.UK);
+
+                            format.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
+                            con.setRequestProperty("If-Modified-Since", format.format(date));
+                        }else {
+                            con.setRequestProperty("If-None-Match", scr.toString());
+                        }
+                    } else {
+                        con.setRequestProperty("If-None-Match", opt.toString());
+                    }
+                }
+
+                String httpUserAgent = app.getProperty("httpUserAgent");
+
+                if (httpUserAgent != null) {
+                    con.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", httpUserAgent);
+                }
+
+                con.setAllowUserInteraction(false);
+
+                String filename = url.getFile();
+                String contentType = con.getContentType();
+                long lastmod = con.getLastModified();
+                String etag = con.getHeaderField("ETag");
+                int length = con.getContentLength();
+                int resCode = 0;
+
+                if (con instanceof HttpURLConnection) {
+                    resCode = ((HttpURLConnection) con).getResponseCode();
+                }
+
+                ByteArrayOutputStream body = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+
+                if ((length != 0) && (resCode != 304)) {
+                    InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(con.getInputStream());
+                    byte[] b = new byte[1024];
+                    int read;
+
+                    while ((read = in.read(b)) > -1)
+                        body.write(b, 0, read);
+
+                    in.close();
+                }
+
+                MimePart mime = new MimePart(filename, body.toByteArray(), contentType);
+
+                if (lastmod > 0) {
+                    mime.lastModified = new Date(lastmod);
+                }
+
+                mime.eTag = etag;
+
+                return mime;
+            } catch (Exception ignore) {
+                System.err.println ("EXCEPT: "+ignore);
+            }
+
+            return null;
+        }
+
     /**
      *
      *