function loadurl(url, panel, data, func) {                      //function loads the markup from the url specified into the panel
   
    //allows you to set the post data and specify a function to call on success
    if (data == null)                                           //data must at the very least be {} in order to supply the content-length in the headers
        data = {};
    $.post(url, data, function(xml) {
        if (panel != null)
            panel.html(xml);
        if (func != null)
            func(xml);
    });
}