function makePOSTRequest(url, parameters, winwidth, todiv)
{
        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);
        opensubpage(winwidth);
        LoadingScreen.show();
}

function alertContents()
{
        if (http_request.readyState == 4)
        {
                if (http_request.status == 200)
                {
                        if (typeof(todiv) == "undefined" || todiv == "")
                                {todiv = "windowcontent";}
                        //alert(http_request.responseText);
                        result = http_request.responseText;
                        document.getElementById(todiv).innerHTML = result;
                        LoadingScreen.hide();
                }
                else
                {
                        alert('There was a problem with the request.');
                }
        }
}