var http_request = false;
   function makeRequest(url, parameters) {
      http_request = false;
      if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
         http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
         if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
            http_request.overrideMimeType('text/html');
         }
      } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
         try {
            http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
         } catch (e) {
            try {
               http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
            } catch (e) {}
         }
      }
      if (!http_request) {
         alert('Cannot create XMLHTTP instance');
         return false;
      }
      http_request.onreadystatechange = alertContents;
      http_request.open('GET', url + parameters, true);
      http_request.send(null);
   }

   function makePostRequest(url, parameters,dump,span,chatmode) {
      http_request = false;
      if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
         http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
         if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
            http_request.overrideMimeType('text/html');
         }
      } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
         try {
            http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
         } catch (e) {
            try {
               http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
            } catch (e) {}
         }
      }
      if (!http_request) {
         alert('Cannot create XMLHTTP instance');
         return false;
      }
      http_request.open('POST',url,true);
      http_request.onreadystatechange = function(){
	if (http_request.readyState == 4){
    	    if (http_request.status == 200){
        	result = http_request.responseText;
		if(!span) span="myspan";
		if(dump){
		    if(document.getElementById(span)) {
			document.getElementById(span).innerHTML=result;
		    }
		}else 
		    eval(result);
		}
	}
      }
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", parameters.length);
      http_request.send(parameters);
   }

   function alertContents() {
      if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
      if (http_request.status == 200)
          {
            result = http_request.responseText;
    	    document.getElementById('myspan').innerHTML = result;
         } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.');
         }
      }
   }