var displayElement = 'messageConsole';
var elProp = '1'; // 1 for innerHTML, 2 for value, etc ...
var retVal = new String();

   var http_request = false;
   function makePOSTRequest(url, parameters, dspElement, elementPropToFill) {
	displayElement = dspElement;
	if(arguments.length > 3) {
		if(elementPropToFill == 'value')
			elProp = 2;
		else if(elementPropToFill == 'return')
			elProp = 3;
	}

      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 = handleReturnVal;
      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 handleReturnVal() {
      if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
         if (http_request.status == 200) {
            //alert(http_request.responseText);
            result = http_request.responseText;
		if(elProp == 1)
            		document.getElementById(displayElement).innerHTML = result;
		else if(elProp == 2)
			document.getElementById(displayElement).value = result;
		else if(elProp == 3)
			retVal = result;
         } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.');
         }
      }
   }
   
   function get(obj) {
      var poststr = "mytextarea1=" + encodeURI( document.getElementById("mytextarea1").value ) +
                    "&mytextarea2=" + encodeURI( document.getElementById("mytextarea2").value );
      makePOSTRequest('post.php', poststr);
   }