String.prototype.trim = function() { return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ""); };

//taken from http://prototype.conio.net/
String.prototype.stripTags = function() {
    return this.replace(/<\/?[^>]+>/gi, '');
  };
  
String.prototype.escapeHTML = function() {
    var div = document.createElement('div');
    var text = document.createTextNode(this);
    div.appendChild(text);
    return div.innerHTML;
  };

// Replace all occurrences of a string with another
String.prototype.replaceAll = function(findText, repText)
{
	return this.replace(new RegExp(findText,"g"), repText);
}

// limits the string to the specified length
String.prototype.limit = function(limit)
{
	var inputString = this;
	if(inputString.length > limit)
	{
		var words = inputString.split(" ");
		var tmpText = "";
		var j = 0;
		while(j < words.length-1)
		{
			outText = tmpText;
			tmpText += words[j] + " "; 
			if (tmpText.length > limit)
			{
				break;
			}
			outText = tmpText;
			j++;
		}
		return outText.substring(0,outText.length-1) + "...";
	}
	return inputString
}

//beware: in IE, line breaks (\n) and tabs get removed by nodeValue
/* String.prototype.unescapeHTML = function() {
    var div = document.createElement('div');
    div.innerHTML = this.stripTags();
    return div.childNodes[0] ? div.childNodes[0].nodeValue : '';
  }; */
  
String.prototype.unescapeHTML = function() {
 	var text = this.stripTags();
	text = text.replace(/&amp;/, "&");
	text = text.replace(/&lt;/, ">");
	text = text.replace(/&lt;/, "<");
	text = text.replace(/&quot;/, '"');
	return text;
  };

String.prototype.encodeURL = function() {
	var SAFECHARS = "0123456789" +					// Numeric
					"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" +	// Alphabetic
					"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" +
					"-_.!~*'()";					// RFC2396 Mark characters
	var HEX = "0123456789ABCDEF";

	var plaintext = this;
	var encoded = "";
	for (var i = 0; i < plaintext.length; i++ ) {
		var ch = plaintext.charAt(i);
	    if (ch == " ") {
		    encoded += "+";				// x-www-urlencoded, rather than %20
		} else if (SAFECHARS.indexOf(ch) != -1) {
		    encoded += ch;
		} else {
		    var charCode = ch.charCodeAt(0);
			if (charCode > 255) {
			   /*  alert( "Unicode Character '" 
                        + ch 
                        + "' cannot be encoded using standard URL encoding.\n" +
				          "(URL encoding only supports 8-bit characters.)\n" +
						  "A space (+) will be substituted." ); */
				encoded += "+";
			} else {
				encoded += "%";
				encoded += HEX.charAt((charCode >> 4) & 0xF);
				encoded += HEX.charAt(charCode & 0xF);
			}
		}
	} // for

	return encoded;
};

function decodeURL( )
{
   // Replace + with ' '
   // Replace %xx with equivalent character
   // Put [ERROR] in output if %xx is invalid.
   var HEXCHARS = "0123456789ABCDEFabcdef"; 
   var encoded = this;
   var plaintext = "";
   var i = 0;
   while (i < encoded.length) {
       var ch = encoded.charAt(i);
	   if (ch == "+") {
	       plaintext += " ";
		   i++;
	   } else if (ch == "%") {
			if (i < (encoded.length-2) 
					&& HEXCHARS.indexOf(encoded.charAt(i+1)) != -1 
					&& HEXCHARS.indexOf(encoded.charAt(i+2)) != -1 ) {
				plaintext += unescape( encoded.substr(i,3) );
				i += 3;
			} else {
				//alert( 'Bad escape combination near ...' + encoded.substr(i) );
				plaintext += "%[ERROR]";
				i++;
			}
		} else {
		   plaintext += ch;
		   i++;
		}
	} // while
   
   return plaintext;
};