function getCookie(name) 
{ // use: getCookie("name");
	var re = new RegExp(name + "=([^;]+)");
	var value = re.exec(document.cookie);
	return (value != null) ? unescape(value[1]) : '';
}
	
function setCookie(name, value) 
{ // use: setCookie("name", value);
	document.cookie=name + "=" + escape(value) + "; path=/; "; 
}
	
// this function extracts the value of a named variable from the query string
// usage: varValue = extractQsVar('varName');
function extractQsVar(varName) {
	qs = location.href.substr(location.href.indexOf('?')+1);
	qsParts = qs.split('&');
	for (i = 0; i < qsParts.length; i++) {
		pair = qsParts[i].split('=');
		if (pair[0]==varName) {
			return pair[1];
		}
	}
}