function getXMLHttpObject(){

	try{
		
		XMLHttpObject = new XMLHttpRequest();
					
	}catch(err){
		
		try{
			
			XMLHttpObject = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
				
		}catch (err){
			
			try{
				
				XMLHttpObject = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
							
			}catch(err){
				
				XMLHttpObject = false;
						
			}
		}
	}
	return XMLHttpObject;
}

//short helper function to collect text information 
//Martin Honnen Forum : http://www.thescripts.com/forum/threadedpost582930.html
//Fix to work in IE & Firefox
function getInnerText (node) {
	if (typeof node.textContent != 'undefined') {
		return node.textContent;
	}else if (typeof node.innerText != 'undefined') {
		return node.innerText;
	}else if (typeof node.text != 'undefined') {
		return node.text;
	}else{
		switch (node.nodeType) {
			case 3:
			case 4:
				return node.nodeValue;
				break;
			case 1:
			case 11:
				var innerText = '';
				for (var i = 0; i < node.childNodes.length; i++) {
					innerText += getInnerText(node.childNodes[i]);
				}
				return innerText;
				break;
			default:
				return '';
		}
	}
}
// ====================================================================
//       URLEncode and URLDecode functions
//
// Copyright Albion Research Ltd. 2002
// http://www.albionresearch.com/
//
// You may copy these functions providing that 
// (a) you leave this copyright notice intact, and 
// (b) if you use these functions on a publicly accessible
//     web site you include a credit somewhere on the web site 
//     with a link back to http://www.albionresarch.com/
//
// If you find or fix any bugs, please let us know at albionresearch.com
//
// SpecialThanks to Neelesh Thakur for being the first to
// report a bug in URLDecode() - now fixed 2003-02-19.
//
// Modifié par Eric Millmore 20 décembre 2006
//
// ====================================================================
function URLEncode( stringToEncode )
{

	//replace the (‘) in Word by (')
	stringToEncode = stringToEncode.replace("‘","'");

	
	// The Javascript escape and unescape functions do not correspond
	// with what browsers actually do...
	var SAFECHARS = "0123456789" +					// Numeric
					"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" +	// Alphabetic
					"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" +
					"-_.!~*'()";					// RFC2396 Mark characters
	var HEX = "0123456789ABCDEF";

	var plaintext = stringToEncode;
	var encoded = "";
	for (var i = 0; i < plaintext.length; i++ ) {
		var ch = plaintext.charAt(i);
	    if (ch == " ") {
		    encoded += "+";				// x-www-urlencoded, rather than %20
		} else if (SAFECHARS.indexOf(ch) != -1) {
		    encoded += ch;
		} else {
		    var charCode = ch.charCodeAt(0);
			if (charCode > 255) {
			    alert( "Unicode Character '" 
                        + ch 
                        + "' cannot be encoded using standard URL encoding.\n" +
				          "(URL encoding only supports 8-bit characters.)\n" +
						  "A space (+) will be substituted." );
				encoded += "+";
			} else {
				encoded += "%";
				encoded += HEX.charAt((charCode >> 4) & 0xF);
				encoded += HEX.charAt(charCode & 0xF);
			}
		}
	} // for

	return encoded;
}

function URLDecode( stringEncode )
{
   // Replace + with ' '
   // Replace %xx with equivalent character
   // Put [ERROR] in output if %xx is invalid.
   var HEXCHARS = "0123456789ABCDEFabcdef"; 
   var encoded = stringEncode;
   var plaintext = "";
   var i = 0;
   while (i < encoded.length) {
       var ch = encoded.charAt(i);
	   if (ch == "+") {
	       plaintext += " ";
		   i++;
	   } else if (ch == "%") {
			if (i < (encoded.length-2) 
					&& HEXCHARS.indexOf(encoded.charAt(i+1)) != -1 
					&& HEXCHARS.indexOf(encoded.charAt(i+2)) != -1 ) {
				plaintext += unescape( encoded.substr(i,3) );
				i += 3;
			} else {
				alert( 'Bad escape combination near ...' + encoded.substr(i) );
				plaintext += "%[ERROR]";
				i++;
			}
		} else {
		   plaintext += ch;
		   i++;
		}
	} // while
   return plaintext;

}
function isEmpty( str ){ 
	try{
	    strRE = new RegExp(  '^[\ ]*$', 'gi'  ); 
	    return strRE.test( str ); 
    }catch(err){
    	
    	return false;	
    }
} 

function validateEmail( strValue) {

	var objRegExp  = /^\w+([\.-]?\w+)*@\w+([\.-]?\w+)*(\.\w{2,3})+$/;

  	//check for valid email
  	return objRegExp.test(strValue);
}