def rest(url, req="<STR_LIT:GET>", data=None):
load_variables()<EOL>return _rest(base_url + url, req, data)<EOL>
Main function to be called from this module.

    send a request using method 'req' and to the url. the _rest() function
    will add the base_url to this, so 'url' should be something like '/ips'.