var Cookie = {
	create : function (name, value, expires, domain, path, 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;
		}
		//alert( 'today ' + today.toGMTString() );// this is for testing purpose only
		var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) );
		//alert('expires ' + expires_date.toGMTString());// this is for testing purposes only
	
		document.cookie = name + "=" +escape( value ) +
			( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) + //expires.toGMTString()
			( ( path ) ? ";path=" + path : "" ) + 
			( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" ) +
			( ( secure ) ? ";secure" : "" );
	},

	read : function (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
		var i = '';
		
		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 name
			if ( cookie_name == 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;
		}
	},

	erase : function (name, domain, path) {
		if (this.read(name)) {
			document.cookie = name + "=" +
				((path) ? ";path=" + path : "") +
				((domain) ? ";domain=" + domain : "") +
				";expires=Thu, 01-Jan-1970 00:00:01 GMT";
		}

	}
	
}