function createRequestObject()
{
	var ro;
	var browser = navigator.appName;

	if(browser == "Microsoft Internet Explorer") {
		// on IE, we have to use ActiveX
		ro = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
	} else {
		// on every other browser, we can directly create a new XMLHttpRequest object
		ro = new XMLHttpRequest();
	}
	return ro;
}

var http = createRequestObject();

// this function should be called for user input
// it opens up a php page with a querystring of 'action'
// this function could probably be adapted to POST
function sndReq(action)
{
	http.open("get", "ajax.php?action=" + action);
	http.onreadystatechange = handleResponse;
	http.send(null);
}

function handleResponse()
{
         document.location.reload();
}