   var http_request = false;
   var http_target = false;
   var http_fields = false;
   function makePOSTRequest(url, parameters) {
      http_request = false;
      if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
         http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
         if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
         	// set type accordingly to anticipated content type
            //http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
            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('POST', url, true);
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", parameters.length);
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
      http_request.send(parameters);
   }

   function alertContents() {
      if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
         if (http_request.status == 200) {
            //alert(http_request.responseText);
            result = http_request.responseText;
            //document.getElementById('myspan').innerHTML = result;            
            document.getElementById(http_target).innerHTML = result;            
         } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.');
         }
      }
   }
   
   function get(target,file,fields) {
      http_target = target
      http_fields = fields
      http_fields = http_fields.split(",")
      poststr = ""
      for (c = 0; c < http_fields.length; c++) {
        if (c > 0) { poststr = poststr+'&' }
        poststr = poststr+http_fields[c]+'='+encodeURI(document.getElementById(http_fields[c]).value);
        //alert(poststr);
      }
      makePOSTRequest(file, poststr);
   }
