// DOM elements
// ============
//
// xmlhttp
// .status
//
// request
// .onreadystatechange
// .readyState
// .responseText
// .responseXML
//
// Node
// .nodeName
// .nodeType
// .nodeValue
// .textContent, .text (IE)

var	request = false;

// Fx: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.0.3) Gecko/20060426 Firefox/1.5.0.3
// IE: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)
// Op: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; U; en) Opera 8.54

// Create instance of XMLHTTPRequest object.
//if( "Microsoft Internet Explorer" == navigator.appName ) {
if( navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("msie") > -1 && ! window.opera ) {
	request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
} else {
	request = new XMLHttpRequest();
}

function ajaxRequestXML( a_url )
{
	var	retval;

	response = '';
	request.open( 'GET', a_url, false );
	request.send(null);
	if( 4 == request.readyState ) {
		retval = request.responseXML;		// typeof XMLDOMElement
	}

	return retval;
}

function ajaxGetNodeList( a_url, a_tagname )
{
	var	retval;

	retval = '';
	request.open( 'GET', a_url, false );
	request.send(null);
	if( 4 == request.readyState ) {
		response = request.responseXML;		// typeof XMLDOMElement
		nodelist = request.responseXML.getElementsByTagName(a_tagname);		// typeof XMLDOMNodeList
	}

	return nodelist;
}