function getMenuXMLHTTPRequest()
{
    var request = false;
    if(navigator.appName != "Microsoft Internet Explorer") 
    {
        request = new XMLHttpRequest();
    } 
    else 
    {
        try 
        {
            request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); // IE 6.0 and greater
        }
        catch(exc) 
        {
        try 
        {
            request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); // IE 4.0 and 5.5
        }
        catch(exc) 
        {
                //fail gracefully 
        }
        }
    }
    return request;
}

var myRequest = getMenuXMLHTTPRequest();

function GetMenuLinks()
{
    var url = '../menuFunctions.php'
    myRequest.onreadystatechange = sendMenuHTTPResponse;
    myRequest.open("GET", url, true);
    myRequest.send(null);
}

var menuData = new Array();

function sendMenuHTTPResponse() 
{
    if(myRequest.status == 200) 
    {
        if(myRequest.readyState == 4) 
        {
            var queryInfo = eval("(" + myRequest.responseText + ")");
           
            for(var array in queryInfo)
            {
                menuData[array] = queryInfo[array];
           
            }
        }
    }
}