//DEFINE AN OBJECT TO HOLD PARAMETERS/////////////
function URLParam(name,value){
this.name=name;
this.value=value;
}

//COLLECTION FUNCTION/////////////////////////////
//pass it a URL search string "?fname=fred&lname=fred"
//it returns an array of URLParam objects

function collectParams(searchString){

//create an array to hold the results
var paramArray=new Array();

//if there are no parameters, return the empty array and stop
if (searchString=="") return paramArray;

//strip off the ? at the beginning
searchString=searchString.substring(1,searchString.length);

//create an array of name/value pairs -- "name=fred"
var stringArray=searchString.split("&");
var NameValue=new Array();
for (var a=0;a<stringArray.length;a++) {
	//split the entry into a 2-member array
	NameValue=stringArray[a].split("=");
	//generate a URLParam object and add it to the main array
	paramArray[a]=new URLParam(NameValue[0],NameValue[1]);
	}//end for

//return an array of URLParam objects
return paramArray;
}//end collectParams

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//EXAMPLE OF USAGE////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/*
//collect any parameters from the search string
var myURL=window.location.search;
var paramArray=collectParams(myURL);

//param might be ID of a program to select
if (paramArray.length>0 && paramArray[0].name=="progID") {
	gList.setSelectedValue(paramArray[0].value);
	}
*/
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////