function makeRequest(div, url)
{
    var httpRequest = null;

    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari, ...
        httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
        if (httpRequest.overrideMimeType) {
            httpRequest.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
            // See note below about this line
        }
    }
    else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
        try {
            httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
            }
            catch (e) {
                       try {
                            httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
                           }
                         catch (e) {}
                      }
                                   }

    if (!httpRequest) {
        alert('Giving up :( Cannot create an XMLHTTP instance');
        return false;
    }
    httpRequest.onreadystatechange = function() {
        // alertContents(httpRequest);
        // alertXMLContents(httpRequest);
        writeHTMLContents(div, httpRequest);

    };
    httpRequest.open('GET', url, true);
    httpRequest.send('');

}

function alertContents(httpRequest)
{
    if (httpRequest.readyState == 4) {
        if (httpRequest.status == 200) {
            alert(httpRequest.responseText);
        } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.');
        }
    }
}

function alertXMLContents(httpRequest)
{
    if (httpRequest.readyState == 4) {
        if (httpRequest.status == 200) {
            var xmldoc = httpRequest.responseXML;
            var root_node = xmldoc.getElementsByTagName('root').item(0);
            alert(root_node.firstChild.data);
        } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.');
        }
    }
}

function writeHTMLContents(div, httpRequest)
{
    if (httpRequest.readyState == 4) {
        if (httpRequest.status == 200) {
            document.getElementById(div).innerHTML= httpRequest.responseText;
        } else {
            alert('There was a problem with the request.');
        }
    }
}