// COOKIES
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; }
}