query_vars = new Object();
readQuery();

function readQuery(){

  // get the URLs query string
  var query_string = document.location.search.toString().substring(1);

  // if no query string
  if(query_string.length == 0){
    query_vars = null;
    return;
  }

  // if no '=', then just the one variable
  if( query_string.indexOf('=',0) == -1 ){
    query_vars = query_string;
    return;
  }

  // split the query string into 'name=value' pairs
  var var_list = query_string.split('&');

  // loop through the list of values
  for(i=0; i<var_list.length; i++){

    // split them into separate names / values
    var_list[i] = var_list[i].split('=');


  if(var_list[i]!=''){
      // if no value set for the variable, set to null
      if( var_list[i][1] == '' ) var_list[i][1] = null;

      // create variable within the query vals object
          eval( "query_vars." + var_list[i][0] + "='" + var_list[i][1] + "'" );
   }
  }

}