// function asyncronously load an html element and display it in an element
	
	
	var globalElementId;
	
	function loadHTML(url,request,elementId,requestType) {
		
		
		var xmlRequest=null;
		if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
			// non-ie
			xmlRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
		} else {
			// ie
			xmlRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
		}
		globalElementId = elementId;
		xmlRequest.open(requestType,url,true);
		xmlRequest.send(request);
		xmlRequest.onreadystatechange = function() {
       			if (xmlRequest.readyState != 4) { return; }
       			document.getElementById(globalElementId).innerHTML = xmlRequest.responseText;
       		}
       		 
			
	}
	
	// syncronously load object data - returns the results from the server
	
	function loadObjectData(url,request,requestType) {
			
		// alert("url="+url+"  request: "+request);
		var xmlRequest=null;
		if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
			// non-ie
			xmlRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
		} else {
			// ie
			xmlRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
		}
		xmlRequest.open(requestType,url,false);
		if (requestType=="post") xmlRequest.setRequestHeader('Content-Type','application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
		xmlRequest.send(request);
		return xmlRequest.responseText;
	       						
	}