def is_alive(self):
        """
        Test Function to check WHAT IF servers are up and running.
        """
        
        u = urllib.urlopen("http://wiws.cmbi.ru.nl/rest/TestEmpty/id/1crn/")
        x = xml.dom.minidom.parse(u)
        self.alive = len(x.getElementsByTagName("TestEmptyResponse"))

        return self.alive
Test Function to check WHAT IF servers are up and running.