diff --git a/src/cljs/ulysses/pages/builder.cljs b/src/cljs/ulysses/pages/builder.cljs
index fa22214..adb3fb4 100644
--- a/src/cljs/ulysses/pages/builder.cljs
+++ b/src/cljs/ulysses/pages/builder.cljs
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@
   [:div.builder-header
     [:h3.text-xs-center.mb-15 (:title op)]])
 
+
 ;; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ;; main
 ;; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/src/cljs/ulysses/utils.cljs b/src/cljs/ulysses/utils.cljs
index f209df9..107bf7a 100644
--- a/src/cljs/ulysses/utils.cljs
+++ b/src/cljs/ulysses/utils.cljs
@@ -14,6 +14,11 @@
 ;; general
 ;; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+(defn noop
+  "do nothing; return nil"
+  [& args]
+  nil)
+
 (defn ptr
   "print x, then return it. useful for
   debugging inside threading macros or map"
@@ -315,12 +320,12 @@
 
 (defn request
   "make an api request, with progress tracking"
-  [db endpoint & {:keys [verb params handler error-handler finally]
+  [db endpoint & {:keys [verb params handler error-handler finish]
                   :or {verb :get
                        params nil
-                       handler #()
-                       error-handler #()
-                       finally #()}}]
+                       handler noop
+                       error-handler noop
+                       finish noop}}]
   (let [progress-id (:next-progress-id db)
         method (case verb :get ajax.core/GET
                           :post ajax.core/POST
@@ -334,7 +339,11 @@
           (map
             #(if (keyword? %) (name %) %)
             endpoint)))
-      {:params (remap url-encode-component params)
+      {:params
+       (when params
+         (remap url-encode-component params))
+       :response-format :json
+       :keywords? true
        :handler handler
        :error-handler
        (fn [e]
@@ -343,9 +352,7 @@
        :finally
        (fn [e]
          (dispatch [:progress progress-id 100]) ; complete progress
-         (finally e)) ; user
-       :response-format :json
-       :keywords? true}))
+         (finish e))})) ; user
   db) ; (no direct db change)
 
 (def request-grant-ops-channel