var please_wait = null;

function open_url(url, target) {
  if ( ! document.getElementById) {
           return false;
  }

  if (please_wait != null) {
           document.getElementById(target).innerHTML = please_wait;
  }

  if (window.ActiveXObject) {
           link = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  } else if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
           link = new XMLHttpRequest();
  }

  if (link == undefined) {
           return false;
  }
  link.onreadystatechange = function() { response(url, target); }
  link.open("GET", url, true);
  link.send(null);
}

function response(url, target) {
  if (link.readyState == 4) {
          document.getElementById(target).innerHTML = (link.status == 200) ? link.responseText : "Ooops!! A broken link! Please contact the webmaster of this website ASAP and give him the following errorcode: " + link.status;
}
}

function set_loading_message(msg) {
  please_wait = msg;
}