function makeRequest(url) {
 
  printLoading();
 
  var httpRequest;
	
  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari, ...
  httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
  if (httpRequest.overrideMimeType) { httpRequest.overrideMimeType('text/xml'); }
  } 
  
  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;
  }
		
  //call the function that will handle the response we get
  httpRequest.onreadystatechange = function() { 
  printCalendar(httpRequest);
  };
  
  httpRequest.open("GET", url, true);
  httpRequest.send(null);

 }
 
 function printCalendar(httpRequest){
	if (httpRequest.readyState == 4) {
       if (httpRequest.status == 200) {
		document.getElementById("mycalendar").innerHTML = httpRequest.responseText;
	   }
	   else {
	   alert('There was a problem with the request.');
	  }
	}
	return;
	}
	
	
function printLoading()
{
	document.getElementById("mycalendar").innerHTML = '<div class="loading_calendar"><img src="/images/print_loading.gif" width="180" height="135" alt="Loading calendar, please wait" /></div>';
}