diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 5086a1c..6d08a16 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -6,3 +6,7 @@ edition = "2021"
 # See more keys and their definitions at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/manifest.html
 
 [dependencies]
+# Some functionality of the normal url crate is only available for "special" schemes such as http.
+# As we want to use this functionality for spartan urls, we use a patched version instead.
+url = { git = "https://github.com/slondr/rust-url-additional-specials", branch = "master" }
+urlencoding = "~2.1"
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 1b4a90c..fd5e2dc 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,151 @@
-#[cfg(test)]
-mod tests {
-    #[test]
-    fn it_works() {
-        let result = 2 + 2;
-        assert_eq!(result, 4);
+pub mod spart {
+    use url::Url;
+    use std::io::prelude::*;
+    
+    pub struct Request {
+	host: String,
+	path: String,
+	content_length: usize,
+	data: Option<String>
+    }
+
+    impl Request {
+	pub fn from_url(parsed_url: Url) -> Result<Request, &'static str> {
+	    if parsed_url.scheme() != "spartan" {
+		return Err("Not a spartan URL")
+	    }
+
+	    match parsed_url.host_str() {
+		None => Err("No hostname"),
+		Some(unparsed_host) => {
+		    let (data, content_length) = match parsed_url.query() {
+			None => (None, 0),
+			Some(s) => {
+			    let decoded_data = urlencoding::decode(s).unwrap().into_owned();
+			    let decoded_len = decoded_data.chars().count();
+			    (Some(decoded_data), decoded_len)
+			}
+		    };
+
+		    let host = unparsed_host.to_string();
+		    let path = parsed_url.path().to_string();
+		    
+		    Ok(Request { host, path, data, content_length })
+		}
+	    }
+	}
+    }
+    
+
+    impl std::fmt::Display for Request {
+	fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> Result<(), std::fmt::Error> {
+	    write!(f, "{} {} {}\r\n{}", self.host, self.path, self.content_length, match &self.data {
+		None => String::new(),
+		Some(d) => d.to_string()
+	    })
+	}
+    }
+
+    pub fn get(r: String) -> Result<String, &'static str> {
+	match Url::parse(&r) {
+	    Err(_) => Err("Cannot parse url"),
+	    Ok(url) => {
+		let port = url.port_or_known_default().unwrap(); // patched version of `uri` DOES have a default
+		let request = Request::from_url(url)?;
+		let mut connection = std::net::TcpStream::connect(format!("{}:{}", request.host, port)).unwrap();
+		let request_string = request.to_string();
+		
+		match connection.write_all(request_string.as_bytes()) {
+		    Err(_) => Err("Error writing to socket"),
+		    Ok(()) => {
+			let mut buffer = String::new();
+			match connection.read_to_string(&mut buffer) {
+			    Err(_) => Err("Unable to read response"),
+			    Ok(_) => Ok(buffer)
+			}
+		    }
+		}
+	    }
+	}
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use crate::spart::Request;
+
+    /// taken from 5.1 of the spec
+    
+    #[test]
+    fn basic_url_mapping_without_slash() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn basic_url_mapping_with_slash() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com/").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn basic_url_mapping_with_port() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com:3000/").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn basic_url_mapping_with_anchor() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com/#about").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn basic_url_mapping_with_user() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://anon@example.com/").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn url_mapping_from_ip_address() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://127.0.0.1/").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("127.0.0.1 / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn url_mapping_from_ip6_address() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://[::1]/").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("[::1] / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn url_mapping_with_punycode() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://examplé.com/").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("xn--exampl-gva.com / 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn url_mapping_with_urlencoded_path() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com/my%20file.txt").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com /my%20file.txt 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn url_mapping_with_unicode_path() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com/café.txt").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com /caf%C3%A9.txt 0\r\n", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn url_mapping_with_data() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com?a=1&b=2").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com / 7\r\na=1&b=2", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+    
+    #[test]
+    fn url_mapping_with_urlencoded_data() {
+	let request = Request::from_url(url::Url::parse("spartan://example.com?hello%20world").unwrap()).unwrap();
+	assert_eq!("example.com / 11\r\nhello world", format!("{}", request))
+    }
+    
+}