// The specification for cookies says that browsers need support no more than 300 different cookies.
// Of those, no more than 20 should be associated with any particular server. 
// For each cookie, the data stored is not expected to exceed 4 kilobytes.
function setCookie(cookieName, cookieValue, expires, path, domain, secure) {
	
	// debugPrint('set: '+document.cookie + '[' + document.cookie.length + ']');

	document.cookie = escape(cookieName) + '=' + escape(cookieValue)
		+ (expires ? '; EXPIRES=' + expires.toGMTString() : '')
		+ (path ? '; PATH=' + path : '')
		+ (domain ? '; DOMAIN=' + domain : '')
		+ (secure ? '; SECURE' : '');
		
}
   
// A complementary function to unwrap a cookie.
function getCookie(cookieName) {
	
	var cookieValue = null;
	var posName = document.cookie.indexOf(escape(cookieName) + '=');
	
	if (posName != -1) {

		var posValue = posName + (escape(cookieName) + '=').length;
		var endPos = document.cookie.indexOf(';', posValue);

		if (endPos != -1) {
			cookieValue = unescape(document.cookie.substring(posValue, endPos));
		} else {
			cookieValue = unescape(document.cookie.substring(posValue));
		}

	}
	
	return cookieValue;
	
}

// Returns a date in UTC format which can be used to set an expiration date for a cookie
function getexpirydate(nodays){
	var UTCstring;
	Today = new Date();
	nomilli = Date.parse(Today);
	Today.setTime (nomilli + nodays * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
	UTCstring = Today.toUTCString();
	return UTCstring;
}