function getAbsoluteLeft(objectId) 
{
	// Get an object left position from the upper left viewport corner
	// Tested with relative and nested objects
	o = document.getElementById(objectId)
	oLeft = o.offsetLeft            // Get left position from the parent object
	while(o.offsetParent!=null) {   // Parse the parent hierarchy up to the document element
		oParent = o.offsetParent    // Get parent object reference
		oLeft += oParent.offsetLeft // Add parent left position
		o = oParent
	}
	// Return left postion
	return oLeft
}

function getAbsoluteTop(objectId) 
{
	// Get an object top position from the upper left viewport corner
	// Tested with relative and nested objects
	o = document.getElementById(objectId)
	oTop = o.offsetTop            // Get top position from the parent object
	while(o.offsetParent!=null) { // Parse the parent hierarchy up to the document element
		oParent = o.offsetParent  // Get parent object reference
		oTop += oParent.offsetTop // Add parent top position
		o = oParent
	}
	// Return top position
	return oTop
}


//Adds a function to the onload event
//use   addEvent(window,'load',func1,false);
//      addEvent(window,'load',func2,false);

function addLoadEvent(func) 
{
	var oldonload = window.onload;
	if (typeof window.onload != 'function') 
	{
		window.onload = func;
	}
	else 
	{
		window.onload = function() {
			oldonload();
			func();
		}
	}
}

// use this function instead of getElementById
// eg $('aa') would return an element that has the id aa
function $() 
{
	var elements = new Array();
	for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) 
	{
		var element = arguments[i];
		if (typeof element == 'string')
			element = document.getElementById(element);
		if (arguments.length == 1)
			return element;
		elements.push(element);
	}
	return elements;
}



//===========================================================================
function trim(sString)
{
	while (sString.substring(0,1) == ' ')
	{
		sString = sString.substring(1, sString.length);
	}
	
	while (sString.substring(sString.length-1, sString.length) == ' ')
	{
		sString = sString.substring(0,sString.length-1);
	}
	return sString;
}