//Elliot Holden - March 2011
function sendAjaxRequest(url,parameters) {
   //set up the http request object
   var http;
   if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { http = new XMLHttpRequest(); }
   else { http = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); alert('This is IE 5 or 6 or worse') }

   var params = "";
   if (parameters != null) {
      var p_array = parameters.split(","); 
      var i=0;
      var name;
      var value;
      for (i=0; i<p_array.length; i++) {
         if (document.getElementById(p_array[i]).getAttribute("name")) {
            name = document.getElementById(p_array[i]).getAttribute("name");
         }
         else { 
            name = p_array[i]; 
         }
            value = document.getElementById(p_array[i]).value; 

         value = value.replace(/&/g,"%26"); // replace ampersands in case you have a URL passed in

         params = params + "&" + name + "=" + value; 
      } 
   }
   params = "rand=" + Math.random() + params;

   http.onreadystatechange = function() {
      if (http.readyState == 4 ) {
         if (http.status == 200) {
              //uncomment the line below when you need to see the params that are being passed to the server
	      //document.getElementById('results').innerHTML = params + "<br /><br />" + http.responseText;
	      document.getElementById('results').innerHTML = http.responseText;
	 }
	 else { document.getElementById('results').innerHTML = http.status + ": " + http.statusText; }  
      } 
      else { document.getElementById('results').innerHTML = "<img src='/images/ajax-loader.gif'>"; }
   }

   http.open("POST",url,true);
   http.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
   http.send(params);
}