function getParameterString (params) {
    var paramsArray = [];
    
    for (var key in params) {
      var value = params[key];
      if ((value != null) && (typeof value != 'function')) {
        var encodedValue;
        if (typeof value == 'object' && value.constructor == Array) {
          /* value is an array; encode items and separate with "," */
          var encodedItemArray = [];
          for (var itemIndex=0, len=value.length; itemIndex<len; itemIndex++) {
            encodedItemArray.push(encodeURIComponent(value[itemIndex]));
          }
          encodedValue = encodedItemArray.join(",");
        }
        else {
          /* value is a string; simply encode */
          encodedValue = encodeURIComponent(value);
        }
        paramsArray.push(encodeURIComponent(key) + "=" + encodedValue);
      }
    }
    
    return paramsArray.join("&");
};

function getParameters(url) {
    // if no url specified, take it from the location bar
    url = url || window.location.href;

    //parse out parameters portion of url string
    var paramsString = "";
    if (url.indexOf('?') != -1) {
        var start = url.indexOf('?') + 1;
        var end = url.indexOf("#") != -1 ?
                    url.indexOf('#') : url.length;
        paramsString = url.substring(start, end);
    }
        
    var parameters = {};
    var pairs = paramsString.split(/[&;]/);
    for(var i=0, len=pairs.length; i<len; ++i) {
        var keyValue = pairs[i].split('=');
        if (keyValue[0]) {
            var key = decodeURIComponent(keyValue[0]);
            var value = keyValue[1] || ''; //empty string if no value

            //decode individual values
            value = value.split(",");
            for(var j=0, jlen=value.length; j<jlen; j++) {
                value[j] = decodeURIComponent(value[j]);
            }

            //if there's only one value, do not return as array                    
            if (value.length == 1) {
                value = value[0];
            }                
            
            parameters[key] = value;
         }
     }
    return parameters;
};


function createCookie(name,value,days) {
    if (days) {
        var date = new Date();
        date.setTime(date.getTime()+(days*24*60*60*1000));
        var expires = "; expires="+date.toGMTString();
    }
    else var expires = "";
    document.cookie = name+"="+value+expires+"; path=/";
}

function readCookie(name) {
    var nameEQ = name + "=";
    var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
    for(var i=0;i < ca.length;i++) {
        var c = ca[i];
        while (c.charAt(0)==' ') c = c.substring(1,c.length);
        if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0) return c.substring(nameEQ.length,c.length);
    }
    return null;
}

function eraseCookie(name) {
    createCookie(name,"",-1);
}