function createAjaxRequest() {
     var xmlReq

     try {
          if (ie) {
               xmlReq = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")
          }
          else {
               xmlReq = new XMLHttpRequest()
          }
     }
     catch(e) {
     }

     if (xmlReq)
          return (xmlReq)
     else
          alert("Error Creating XMLHttpRequest")
}

function execAjaxRequest(xmlReq, url, query, func) {
     if (xmlReq.readyState == 0 || xmlReq.readyState == 4) {
          try {
               xmlReq.open("POST", url, true)
               xmlReq.onreadystatechange = func
               xmlReq.send(query)
          }
          catch(e) {
               alert(e.toString())
          }
     }
}

function readAjaxRequest(xmlReq,xt) {
     try {
          if (xmlReq.status == 200) {
               try {
                    if (xt == null || xt == "X")
                         var xml = xmlReq.responseXML.getElementsByTagName("response")
                    else
                         var xml = xmlReq.responseText

                    return (xml)
               }
               catch(e) {
                    // generally no response, ie wrong url, server crapped out, etc
                    alert("Invalid Response from Server(1) \n"+e.toString())
               }
          }
          else {
               alert(xmlReq.statusText)
          }
     }
     catch(e) {
          alert("Invalid Response from Server(2) \n"+e.toString())
     }
}

function xmlRequest(url, query, xml)
{
        // url is the url to contact
        // query is the query to send
        // xml is a flag: 1=return xml, 0=return text

        if (ie)
        {
                var xmlReq = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")
        }
        else
        {
                var xmlReq = new XMLHttpRequest()
        }

        try
        {
                xmlReq.open("POST", url, false)
                xmlReq.send(query)

                if (xmlReq.status==200)
                {
                        // set the response message

                        if (xml)
                        {
                                var response = xmlReq.responseXML.getElementsByTagName("response")
                        }
                        else
                        {
                                var response = xmlReq.responseText
                        }
                }
        }
        catch(e)
        {
                response = ""
        }

        return (response)
}

function displayResponse(xml)
{
     // get & display response in resptext.
     // return respcode

     var resptextx = xml[0].getElementsByTagName("resptext")
     var respcodex = xml[0].getElementsByTagName("respcode")

     // set response
     if (document.getElementById("resptext"))
     {
          document.getElementById("resptext").firstChild.nodeValue = resptextx[0].firstChild.nodeValue
     }

     var respcode = respcodex[0].firstChild.nodeValue
     return (respcode)
}

function jsLoad(src,id,func) {
     new Ajax.Request(src,
          {method: "post",
          onComplete: function(t) {
               var scr = document.createElement("script")
               scr.id = id
               scr.type = "text/javascript"
               scr.text = t.responseText
               document.getElementsByTagName("head").item(0).appendChild(scr)
               func()}
          }
     )
}