function setCookie(name, value, expires, domain) 
{
    var date = new Date();
    date.setTime(expires);
    document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value) + "; expires=" + date.toGMTString() + ((domain) ? "; domain=" + domain : "");
}

function getCookie(search_name) 
{
    // note: document.cookie only returns name=value, not the other components 
    var tab_cookies = document.cookie.split(';');
    for (i = 0; i < tab_cookies.length; i++) 
	{
        // now we'll split apart each name=value pair 
        var cookie_tmp = tab_cookies[i].split('=');
        // and trim left/right whitespace while we're at it 
        var cookie_name = cookie_tmp[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');
        // if the extracted name matches passed search_name 
        if (cookie_name == search_name) 
		{
            // we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is): 
            if (cookie_tmp.length > 1) 
			{
                return unescape(cookie_tmp[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ''));
            }
            // cookie is initialized but no value => result = null 
            return null;
        }
    }
	
    return null;
}