/*	
	--------------------------------------------------
			  Globals
	--------------------------------------------------
*/
	var http_request = false;
	
//	file that processes the http request
	//var gItemProcessorFile = 'transaction_recorder.php';
	var gItemProcessorFile = 'http://nclpc.org/convention/registration/transaction_recorder.php';
	
//	id of div, span, etc. where response goes -- DEFAULT used if parameter not sent
	var gHTMLTarget = 'ItemHTML';
/*	
	--------------------------------------------------
	       function makePOSTRequest
	--------------------------------------------------
	
	Use POST to make an AJAX request to the 
	url specified, with the POST parameters in the 
	string named parameters. The string parameters
	must have synta x necessary for a string of
	POST parameters.  
	
	The name of the js script which recieves the 
	response from the request is in global variable 
	receivePOSTRequest.
	
	The url/filespec of the file posted to--the processor 
	file is in global variable gItemProcessorFile.
	
*/ 
	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 = receivePOSTRequest;
      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);
	  
	  return true;
	} // end function makePOSTRequest
/*	
	--------------------------------------------------
	      function receivePOSTRequest
	--------------------------------------------------
*/ 	
	function receivePOSTRequest() 
	{
//alert('POST request Response received');

//		target "field" -- use parameter value if not null or get default
		var targetField = gHTMLTarget;
	
		if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
			if (http_request.status == 200) {
				//alert(http_request.responseText);
				result = http_request.responseText;
	
				document.getElementById(targetField).innerHTML = result;
				
			 }else {
				alert('There was a problem with the request.');
				return false;
			 }
		}
		return true;
	} // end function receivePOSTRequest
	
/*	
	--------------------------------------------------
	            function makePOSTVar
	--------------------------------------------------
*/ 
	function makePOSTVar(pTargetField, pLeadingChar) 
	{
	
//		need leading ampersand for params 2+		
		var leadingChar =  (pLeadingChar == null) ? '&' : '';
		
//		default for target flag parameter
		var target = (pTargetField == null) ? 'n/a' : pTargetField;

		var oTempItem = document.getElementById(target);
		
		if(oTempItem)
		{ 
			return leadingChar + target + '=' + encodeURI(oTempItem.value);	
		}
		else
		{
			return '';
		}
		
	} // end function makePOSTVar