function makeRequest(url, div) {
 
  printLoading(div);
  
  var httpRequest;
	
  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari, ...
  httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
  if (httpRequest.overrideMimeType) { httpRequest.overrideMimeType('text/xml'); }
  } 
  
  else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
  try { httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } 
  catch (e) { try { httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } 
  catch (e) {}
  }
  }
        
  if (!httpRequest) {
  alert('Giving up :( Cannot create an XMLHTTP instance');
  return false;
  }
		
  //call the function that will handle the response we get
  httpRequest.onreadystatechange = function() { 
  	printContent(httpRequest, div, url);
  };
  

  	httpRequest.open("GET", url, true);
  	httpRequest.setRequestHeader("If-Modified-Since", "Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT");
	httpRequest.setRequestHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cachE");
  	httpRequest.send(null);
  
 }
 
 function printContent(httpRequest, div, url){
	if (httpRequest.readyState == 4) {
       if (httpRequest.status == 200) {
		document.getElementById(div).innerHTML = httpRequest.responseText;
	   }
	   else {
	   //alert('There was a problem with the request to '+url);
	   document.getElementById(div).innerHTML = '<p>&nbsp;</p><p>Oh dear. There was an error requesting the url'+url+'</p>';
	  }
	}
	return;
}
	
	
function printLoading(div)
{
	document.getElementById(div).innerHTML = '<div class="loading"><img src="/images/loading.gif" width="350" height="300" alt="Processing, please wait" /></div>';
}