//**
//* setCookie
//*

function setCookie(name,value,expires,domain) {

	// set time, it's in milliseconds
	var today = new Date();
	today.setTime( today.getTime() );

	/* if the expires variable is set, make the correct 
	expires time, the current script below will set 
	it for x number of days, to make it for hours, 
	delete * 24, for minutes, delete * 60 * 24
	*/
	if ( expires ) {
		expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
	}

	var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) );

	document.cookie = name + "=" +escape( value ) + ( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) +
	( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) + 
	( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" );
	
}

//**
//* getCookie
//*

function getCookie(check_name) {
	// first we'll split this cookie up into name/value pairs
	// note: document.cookie only returns name=value, not the other components
	var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' );

	var a_temp_cookie = '';
	var cookie_name = '';
	var cookie_value = '';
	var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f

	for ( i = 0; i < a_all_cookies.length; i++ ) {
		// now we'll split apart each name=value pair
		a_temp_cookie = a_all_cookies[i].split( '=' );
		
		// and trim left/right whitespace while we're at it
		cookie_name = a_temp_cookie[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');
	
		// if the extracted name matches passed check_name
		if ( cookie_name == check_name ) {
			b_cookie_found = true;
			// we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is):
			if ( a_temp_cookie.length > 1 ) {
				cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '') );
			}
			// note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned
			return cookie_value;
			//break;
		}
		a_temp_cookie = null;
		cookie_name = '';
	}
	if ( !b_cookie_found )	{
		return null;
	}
}