function gup(name) {
  name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
  var regexS = "[\\?&]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
  var regex = new RegExp( regexS );
  var results = regex.exec( self.location.href );
  if( results == null ) return ""; else return results[1];
}


function setCookie(name, value, expires, path, domain, secure ) {
  // set time, it's in milliseconds
  var today = new Date();
  today.setTime( today.getTime() );
  /*
    if the expires variable is set, make the correct
    expires time, the current script below will set
    it for x number of days, to make it for hours,
    delete * 24, for minutes, delete * 60 * 24
  */
  if ( expires ) {
    expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
  }
  var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) );

  document.cookie = name + "=" +escape( value ) +
    ( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) +
    ( ( path ) ? ";path=" + path : "" ) +
    ( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" ) +
    ( ( secure ) ? ";secure" : "" );
}

function getCookie(check_name) {
  // first we'll split this cookie up into name/value pairs
  // note: document.cookie only returns name=value, not the other components
  var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' );
  var a_temp_cookie = '';
  var cookie_name = '';
  var cookie_value = '';
  var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f

  for ( i = 0; i < a_all_cookies.length; i++ ) {
    // now we'll split apart each name=value pair
    a_temp_cookie = a_all_cookies[i].split( '=' );

    // and trim left/right whitespace while we're at it
    cookie_name = a_temp_cookie[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');

    // if the extracted name matches passed check_name
    if ( cookie_name == check_name ) {
      b_cookie_found = true;
      // we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is):
      if ( a_temp_cookie.length > 1 ) {
        cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '') );
      }
      // note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned
      return cookie_value;
      break;
    }
    a_temp_cookie = null;
    cookie_name = '';
  }
  if ( !b_cookie_found ) {
    return null;
  }
}