title: What kind of script/app to build for REST service over HTTPS
body: <p>I am tasked by my manager to build a simple app/script that retrieves data from a network appliance that has an exposed REST service over HTTPS. The data I need can be simply retrieved using a secure URL and the response is in XML/json. I just need to display the data in a nice format (colors/graphs) and allow the rest of my team to use it too.</p>
  
  <p>I have freedom over whatever way I choose to write or host the app (any language, web/local app). I thought that the simplest way was to write a html/javascript file that simply sends ajax requests to the server. I realized this was not possible due to cross origin requests and also SSL not being enabled.</p>
  
  <p>Building a web app for a simple script seems ridiculous (server to server requests??) What should I do? will a local script/app be more appropiate? </p>
  
  <p>Sample REST http request:</p>
  
  <pre><code>https://mynetworkappliance:12345/somequerystring
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Response:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{
      "data" : 1234567,
      "string" : "someStringIwannaMakePretty"
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Keep in mind the person using it needs to type in username and password to authenticate with the network appliance over HTTPS, before any data is returned. 
  Suggestions will really be appreciated!</p>