diff --git a/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/ParserUtils.java b/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/ParserUtils.java
index 35b324d6..1ffa06e1 100644
--- a/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/ParserUtils.java
+++ b/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/ParserUtils.java
@@ -164,17 +164,33 @@ public final class ParserUtils
 	}
 
 	public static final InputStream scrapeInputStream(final String url) throws IOException
+	{
+		return scrapeInputStream(url, null);
+	}
+
+	public static final InputStream scrapeInputStream(final String url, final String postRequest) throws IOException
 	{
 		final HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(url).openConnection();
 
 		connection.setDoInput(true);
-		connection.setDoOutput(false);
+		connection.setDoOutput(postRequest != null);
 		connection.setConnectTimeout(SCRAPE_CONNECT_TIMEOUT);
 		connection.setReadTimeout(SCRAPE_READ_TIMEOUT);
 		connection.addRequestProperty("User-Agent", SCRAPE_USER_AGENT);
 		// workaround to disable Vodafone compression
 		connection.addRequestProperty("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
 
+		if (postRequest != null)
+		{
+			connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
+			connection.addRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
+			connection.addRequestProperty("Content-Length", Integer.toString(postRequest.length()));
+
+			final Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(connection.getOutputStream(), SCRAPE_DEFAULT_ENCODING);
+			writer.write(postRequest);
+			writer.close();
+		}
+
 		return connection.getInputStream();
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/XmlPullUtil.java b/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/XmlPullUtil.java
index 4b21e8f0..9a879047 100644
--- a/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/XmlPullUtil.java
+++ b/src/de/schildbach/pte/util/XmlPullUtil.java
@@ -21,6 +21,67 @@ public final class XmlPullUtil
 {
 	public static final String XSI_NS = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";
 
+	/**
+	 * directly jumps forward to start tag, ignoring any structure
+	 */
+	public static void jump(final XmlPullParser pp, final String tagName) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException
+	{
+		if (!jumpToStartTag(pp, null, tagName))
+			throw new IllegalStateException("cannot find <" + tagName + " />");
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * enters current tag
+	 * @throws IOException 
+	 */
+	public static void enter(final XmlPullParser pp) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException
+	{
+		if (pp.getEventType() != XmlPullParser.START_TAG)
+			throw new IllegalStateException("expecting start tag to enter");
+		if (pp.isEmptyElementTag())
+			throw new IllegalStateException("cannot enter empty tag");
+		pp.next();
+	}
+	
+	public static void exit(final XmlPullParser pp) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException
+	{
+		if (pp.getEventType() != XmlPullParser.END_TAG)
+			throw new IllegalStateException("expecting end tag to exit");
+		pp.next();
+	}
+	
+	public static boolean test(final XmlPullParser pp, final String tagName) throws XmlPullParserException
+	{
+		return pp.getEventType() == XmlPullParser.START_TAG && pp.getName().equals(tagName);
+	}
+	
+	public static void skipTree(final XmlPullParser pp) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException
+	{
+		skipSubTree(pp);
+		pp.next();
+	}
+
+	public static void require(final XmlPullParser pp, final String tagName) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException
+	{
+		pp.require(XmlPullParser.START_TAG, null, tagName);
+	}
+
+	public static String attr(final XmlPullParser pp, final String attrName)
+	{
+		return pp.getAttributeValue(null, attrName);
+	}
+
+	public static int intAttr(final XmlPullParser pp, final String attrName)
+	{
+		return Integer.parseInt(pp.getAttributeValue(null, attrName));
+	}
+
+	public static void requireAttr(final XmlPullParser pp, final String attrName, final String requiredValue)
+	{
+		if (!requiredValue.equals(attr(pp, attrName)))
+			throw new IllegalStateException("cannot find " + attrName + "=\"" + requiredValue + "\" />");
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Return value of attribute with given name and no namespace.
 	 */