// Example:
// writeCookie("myCookie", "my name", 24);
// Stores the string "my name" in the cookie "myCookie" which expires after 24 hours.
// Example:
// value1 = 3; value2 = 4;
// messageBox("text message %s and %s", value1, value2);
// this message box will display the text "text message 3 and 4"
function messageBox()
{
  var i, msg = "", argNum = 0, startPos;
  var args = messageBox.arguments;
  var numArgs = args.length;
  if(numArgs)
  {
    theStr = args[argNum++];
    startPos = 0;  endPos = theStr.indexOf("%s",startPos);
    if(endPos == -1) endPos = theStr.length;
    while(startPos < theStr.length)
    {
      msg += theStr.substring(startPos,endPos);
      if (argNum < numArgs) msg += args[argNum++];
      startPos = endPos+2;  endPos = theStr.indexOf("%s",startPos);
      if (endPos == -1) endPos = theStr.length;
    }
    if (!msg) msg = args[0];
  }
  alert(msg);
}


function writeCookie(name, value, hours)
{
  var expire = "";
  if(hours != null)
  {
    expire = new Date((new Date()).getTime() + hours * 3600000);
    expire = "; expires=" + expire.toGMTString();
  }
  document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value) + expire;
}

// Example:
// alert( readCookie("myCookie") );
function readCookie(name)
{
  var cookieValue = "";
  var search = name + "=";
  if(document.cookie.length > 0)
  { 
    offset = document.cookie.indexOf(search);
    if (offset != -1)
    { 
      offset += search.length;
      end = document.cookie.indexOf(";", offset);
      if (end == -1) end = document.cookie.length;
      cookieValue = unescape(document.cookie.substring(offset, end))
    }
  }
  return cookieValue;
}