function pickEntityUpdateList() {
    var selectBox = document.getElementById('pick_entity_list');
    selectBox.options.length = 0;
    selectBox.options[0] = new Option('Loading..', -1);
    switch (currentType) {
      case 'Customer':
        req.open('post', ajaxGetEntityListCustomer, false)
        break;
      case 'Vessel':
        req.open('post', ajaxGetEntityListVessel, false)
        break;
      case 'Agent':
        req.open('post', ajaxGetEntityListAgent, false)
        break;
      default:
        return;
        break;
    }
    req.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
    req.onreadystatechange = ajaxPickEntityResponse;
    req.send('search=' + escape(document.getElementById('pick_entity_search').value) );
  } 
  function ajaxPickEntityResponse() {
    if(req.readyState == 4){
      var ajaxResponse = req.responseXML;
      var currentTag = false;
      var selectBox = document.getElementById('pick_entity_list');
      selectBox.options.length = 0;
      for (var i = 0; i < ajaxResponse.getElementsByTagName('entity').length; i++) {
        currentTag   = ajaxResponse.getElementsByTagName('entity')[i];
        currentName  = currentTag.childNodes[0] == undefined ? '' : unescape(currentTag.childNodes[0].nodeValue);
        currentValue = currentTag.getAttribute("value");
        selectBox.options[i] = new Option(currentName, currentValue);
      }
      if ( ajaxResponse.getElementsByTagName('entity').length == 0 ) {
        selectBox.options[0] = new Option('(no matches)', -1);
      }
   }
  }