function setCookie( name, value, expires, path, domain, secure ) {
  // set time, it's in milliseconds
  var today = new Date();
  today.setTime( today.getTime() );

  /*
  if the expires variable is set, make the correct 
  expires time, the current script below will set 
  it for x number of days, to make it for hours, 
  delete * 24, for minutes, delete * 60 * 24
  */
  if ( expires ) {
    expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
  }
  var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) );

  document.cookie = name + "=" +escape( value ) +
  ( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) + 
  ( ( path ) ? ";path=" + path : "" ) + 
  ( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" ) +
  ( ( secure ) ? ";secure" : "" );
}


// this fixes an issue with the old method, ambiguous values 
// with this test document.cookie.indexOf( name + "=" );
function getCookie( check_name ) {
  // first we'll split this cookie up into name/value pairs
  // note: document.cookie only returns name=value, not the other components
  var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' );
  var a_temp_cookie = '';
  var cookie_name = '';
  var cookie_value = '';
  var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f
  for ( i = 0; i < a_all_cookies.length; i++ )
  {
    // now well split apart each name=value pair
    a_temp_cookie = a_all_cookies[i].split( '=' );
    
    
    // and trim left/right whitespace while were at it
    cookie_name = a_temp_cookie[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');
  
    // if the extracted name matches passed check_name
    if ( cookie_name == check_name )
    {
      b_cookie_found = true;
      // we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is):
      if ( a_temp_cookie.length > 1 )
      {
        cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '') );
      }
      // note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned
      return cookie_value;
      break;
    }
    a_temp_cookie = null;
    cookie_name = '';
  }
  if ( !b_cookie_found )
  {
    return null;
  }
}   

function URLParameters() {
	var qsParm = new Object();
	var query = window.location.search.substring(1);
	var parms = query.split('&');
	for (var i=0; i<parms.length; i++) {
		var pos = parms[i].indexOf('=');
		if (pos > 0) {
			var key = parms[i].substring(0,pos);
			var val = parms[i].substring(pos+1);
			qsParm[key] = val;
		}
	}
	return qsParm;
}