var http_request = false;

function show_hint ( p_hint_text, p_span ) {
    document.getElementById(p_span).innerHTML = p_hint_text ;
} 

function makePOSTRequest(url, parameters, SpanName) {
    http_request = false;
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
        http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
        if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
            http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
        }
    } 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 = function() {
        if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
            if (http_request.status == 200) {
                // alert("2. "+http_request.responseText);
                result = http_request.responseText;
                document.getElementById(SpanName).innerHTML = result;
//				document.getElementById('status').innerHTML = 'Ready'; 
            } else {
                alert('There was a problem with the request.');
            }
        }
    }
    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 Contact(obj,SpanName) {
    var curDateTime = new Date(); //For IE 
    var SpanName = SpanName;
    var querystr = obj;
    var poststr = encodeURI("form")+"=" + encodeURI(querystr);
   // alert ("4. "+poststr); 
    makePOSTRequest('/cgi/ajax.cgi', poststr, SpanName);
}