diff --git a/conf/GremlinServerConnection.json b/conf/GremlinServerConnection.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a3a9adf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conf/GremlinServerConnection.json
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+{
+  "host":"localhost",
+  "port":8182,
+  "username":"",
+  "password":""
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/conf/SteamAPIKey.json b/conf/SteamAPIKey.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0284303
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conf/SteamAPIKey.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  "api":"put-your-key-here"
+}
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 5080960..f2d7d25 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@
 
   <properties>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
-    <maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
+    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
+    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
@@ -25,6 +25,34 @@
       <version>4.11</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
+
+    <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.tinkerpop/gremlin-core -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.tinkerpop</groupId>
+      <artifactId>gremlin-core</artifactId>
+      <version>3.0.0.M7</version>
+    </dependency>
+
+    <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.tinkerpop/gremlin-driver -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.tinkerpop</groupId>
+      <artifactId>gremlin-driver</artifactId>
+      <version>3.3.3</version>
+    </dependency>
+
+
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.tinkerpop</groupId>
+      <artifactId>tinkergraph-gremlin</artifactId>
+      <version>3.3.3</version>
+    </dependency>
+
+    <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.json/json -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.json</groupId>
+      <artifactId>json</artifactId>
+      <version>20180130</version>
+    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
   <build>
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/SteamAPI/APIConnection.java b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/SteamAPI/APIConnection.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..653a174
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/SteamAPI/APIConnection.java
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+package net.jrtechs.www.SteamAPI;
+
+import net.jrtechs.www.utils.ConfigLoader;
+
+/**
+ * Class which is used to pull information from the Steam api
+ *
+ * @author Jeffery Russell 5-26-18
+ */
+public class APIConnection
+{
+    /** Base url to use for all queries to steam's api  **/
+    private final String baseURL = "http://api.steampowered.com";
+
+    /** Path to use when getting info on a player from api **/
+    private final String playerInfoURL = "/ISteamUser/GetPlayerSummaries/v0002/";
+
+    private final String friendListURL = "/ISteamUser/GetFriendList/v0001/";
+
+    /** Path to conf file(from within the conf folder) **/
+    private final String confPath = "SteamAPIKey.json";
+
+    /** API key for steam's api - loaded from json conf file **/
+    private String apiKey;
+
+
+    /**
+     * Constructor for APIConnection which loads a config file
+     * and sets the api key to your Steam api key.
+     */
+    public APIConnection()
+    {
+        ConfigLoader conf = new ConfigLoader(confPath);
+
+        apiKey = "?key=" + conf.getValue("api");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/graphDB/RemoteConnection.java b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/graphDB/RemoteConnection.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c61dc40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/graphDB/RemoteConnection.java
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+package net.jrtechs.www.graphDB;
+
+import org.apache.tinkerpop.gremlin.driver.Client;
+import org.apache.tinkerpop.gremlin.driver.Cluster;
+import org.apache.tinkerpop.gremlin.driver.ResultSet;
+
+import net.jrtechs.www.utils.ConfigLoader;
+
+/**
+ * Simple helper class which allows us to remotely connect to a
+ * remote graph
+ *
+ * @author Jeffery Russell 5-24-18
+ */
+public class RemoteConnection
+{
+
+    /** Stores/manages client connections **/
+    private Cluster cluster;
+
+
+    /**
+     * Connection to the graph db
+     */
+    private Client client;
+
+
+    /**
+     * Connects to a remote Graph database
+     *
+     * Check this link out to learn about Cluster.Builder()
+     * http://tinkerpop.apache.org/javadocs/3.3.3/core/org/apache/tinkerpop/
+     * gremlin/driver/Cluster.Builder.html
+     *
+     */
+    public RemoteConnection()
+    {
+        ConfigLoader conf = new ConfigLoader("GremlinServerConnection.json");
+
+        Cluster.Builder b = Cluster.build();
+        b.addContactPoint(conf.getValue("host"));
+        b.port(conf.getInt("port"));
+
+        b.credentials(conf.getValue("username"), conf.getValue("password"));
+
+        this.cluster = b.create();
+
+        this.client = cluster.connect();
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Queries the graph and return the results which can be iterated over
+     *
+     * ex:
+     *  ResultSet results = remote.queryGraph("g.V().values('name')");
+     *
+     *  results.stream().forEach(result ->
+     *  {
+     *       String s = result.getString();
+     *       System.out.println("name: " + s);
+     *  });
+     *
+     * @param q
+     * @return
+     */
+    public ResultSet queryGraph(String q)
+    {
+        return this.client.submit(q);
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Closes connection with remote database
+     */
+    public void closeConnection()
+    {
+        this.cluster.close();
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * testing method which will be removed soon
+     * @param args
+     */
+    public static void main(String args[])
+    {
+        RemoteConnection remote = new RemoteConnection();
+        ResultSet results = remote.queryGraph("g.V().values('name')");
+
+        //results.stream().forEach(System.out::println);
+
+        results.stream().forEach(result ->
+        {
+            String s = result.getString();
+            System.out.println("name: " + s);
+        });
+
+        remote.closeConnection();
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/utils/ConfigLoader.java b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/utils/ConfigLoader.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b6444e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/utils/ConfigLoader.java
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+package net.jrtechs.www.utils;
+
+import org.json.JSONObject;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+
+
+/**
+ * {@link ConfigLoader} Is responsible for abstracting the process
+ * of loading a configuration file to make it easier to use for
+ * multiple purposes.
+ * All configuration files will be stored in JSON format which
+ * makes reading and distributing them easier.
+ *
+ * @author Jeffery Russell 5-22-18
+ */
+public class ConfigLoader
+{
+    /** Json object which stores configuration contents **/
+    JSONObject config;
+
+
+    /**
+     * Constructor which reads in a conf file and sets the
+     * json element of the class.
+     *
+     * @param fileName
+     */
+    public ConfigLoader(String fileName)
+    {
+        fileName = "conf/" + fileName;
+
+        String file = this.loadFile(fileName);
+        this.config = new JSONObject(file);
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Loads JSON from a particular file
+     *
+     * @param file -- file name to open
+     * @return - String of file contents
+     */
+    private String loadFile(String file)
+    {
+        String jsonString = "";
+
+        try
+        {
+            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(
+                    new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file)));
+            String line;
+            while((line = br.readLine()) != null)
+            {
+                if(line.length() > 0 && line.charAt(0) != '#')
+                {
+                    jsonString += line;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        catch(Exception e)
+        {
+            e.printStackTrace();
+        }
+        return jsonString;
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Returns a single property from a {@link ConfigLoader}
+     * based on its key.
+     *
+     * @param key
+     * @return
+     */
+    public String getValue(String key)
+    {
+        if(this.config.has(key))
+            return this.config.getString(key);
+        else
+            return null;
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the integer value associated with a key in
+     * the configuration file.
+     *
+     * @param key
+     * @return
+     */
+    public int getInt(String key)
+    {
+        if(this.config.has(key))
+            return this.config.getInt(key);
+        else
+            return 0;
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/utils/WebScraper.java b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/utils/WebScraper.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a8d90e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/net/jrtechs/www/utils/WebScraper.java
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+package net.jrtechs.www.utils;
+
+import java.io.*;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
+import java.net.URL;
+
+/**
+ * Class which retrieves contents of a website as html
+ *
+ * @author Jeffery Russell 5-25-18
+ */
+public class WebScraper {
+    /**
+     * Grabs the contents of a website as a string
+     *
+     * @param link to open
+     * @return source code of website as a single string
+     */
+    public static String getWebsite(String link) {
+        try {
+            URL url = new URL(link);
+
+            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(
+                    new InputStreamReader(url.openStream())
+            );
+            return WebScraper.getBufferedReaderData(br);
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            e.printStackTrace();
+        }
+        return "";
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Gets contents of a post request sent to a web server
+     *
+     * @param link     to open
+     * @param postData to send
+     * @return source code of website as a string
+     */
+    public static String getPostResponse(String link, String postData) {
+        try {
+            URL url = new URL(link);
+            HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
+            conn.setDoOutput(true);
+            conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
+
+            OutputStream os = conn.getOutputStream();
+            os.write(postData.getBytes());
+            os.flush();
+
+            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(
+                    new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream())
+            );
+            return WebScraper.getBufferedReaderData(br);
+        } catch (Exception ex) {
+            ex.printStackTrace();
+        }
+
+        return "";
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Helper method for getPostResponse() and getWebsite()
+     * Slams all contents of a buffered reader into a single string.
+     *
+     * @param br
+     * @return contents of buffered reader
+     * @throws IOException -- with br.readLine()
+     */
+    private static String getBufferedReaderData(BufferedReader br)
+            throws IOException {
+        String html = "";
+        String line;
+        while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
+            html += line;
+        }
+        return html;
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file