var http_request = false;
   function makePOSTRequest(url, parameters) {
	
      http_request = false;
      if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
         http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
         if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
         	// set type accordingly to anticipated content type
            //http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
            http_request.overrideMimeType('text/html');
         }
      } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
         try {
            http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
         } catch (e) {
            try {
               http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
            } catch (e) {}
         }
      }
      if (!http_request) {
         alert('Cannot create XMLHTTP instance');
         return false;
      }

      http_request.onreadystatechange = alertContents;
      http_request.open('POST', url, true);
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", parameters.length);
      http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
      http_request.send(parameters);
   }
		
   function alertContents() {
      if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
         if (http_request.status == 200) {
			//alert(http_request.responseText);
			if(/redirect/i.exec(http_request.responseText)){
				str = http_request.responseText.split(/\s/g);
				window.location = str[1];
				return
			}
            result = http_request.responseText;
            document.getElementById(span).innerHTML = result;
			document.getElementById(span2).innerHTML = '';     
         } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.');
         }
      }
   }
/*
	ajax('dev1','products','action=new_date&di=1','span1');
*/
   /* ajax('span_id','page','variable','preloader') */
   function ajax(span1,page,poststr,vspan2){
		span = span1;
		span2 = vspan2;
		 var poststr = poststr;
		makePOSTRequest(page, poststr);
   }