function setOpacity(obj, opacity) {
    opacity = (opacity == 100)?99.999:opacity;
    // IE/Win
    obj.style.filter = "alpha(opacity:"+opacity+")";
    // Safari<1.2, Konqueror
    obj.style.KHTMLOpacity = opacity/100;
    // Older Mozilla and Firefox
    obj.style.MozOpacity = opacity/100;
    // Safari 1.2, newer Firefox and Mozilla, CSS3
    obj.style.opacity = opacity/100;
}

function getElement(id)
{
  if (document.getElementById)
  var returnVar = document.getElementById(id);
  else if (document.all)
  var returnVar = document.all[id];
  else if (document.layers)
  var returnVar = document.layers[id];
  return returnVar;
}
        
function fadeIn(objId,opacity,to,sleep,step) {
  if(!to)
    to = 100;
    
  if(!sleep)
    sleep = 100;
    
   if(!step)
    step = 5;
  
  if (document.getElementById) {
      var obj = document.getElementById(objId);
      if (opacity>=to)
      {
        setOpacity(obj, opacity);
      }
      else {
        opacity += step;
        setOpacity(obj, opacity);
        window.setTimeout("fadeIn('"+objId+"',"+opacity+","+to+","+sleep+","+step+")", sleep);
      }
  } 
  }


function fadeOut(objId,opacity) {
  if (document.getElementById) {
    var obj = document.getElementById(objId);
    if (opacity >= 0) {
      setOpacity(obj, opacity);
      opacity -= 10;
      window.setTimeout("fadeOut('"+objId+"',"+opacity+")", 50);
    } 
    else 
    {
    }
  }
} 


function ltrim(str) { 
	for(var k = 0; k < str.length && isWhitespace(str.charAt(k)); k++);
	return str.substring(k, str.length);
}
function rtrim(str) {
	for(var j=str.length-1; j>=0 && isWhitespace(str.charAt(j)) ; j--) ;
	return str.substring(0,j+1);
}
function trim(str) {
	return ltrim(rtrim(str));
}
function isWhitespace(charToCheck) {
	var whitespaceChars = " \t\n\r\f";
	return (whitespaceChars.indexOf(charToCheck) != -1);
}