var http_request = false;

               function makeRequest(url) {

                   http_request = false;

                   if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
                       http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
                       if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
                           http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
                       }
                   } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
                       try {
                           http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
                       } catch (e) {
                           try {
                           http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
                           } catch (e) {}
                       }
                   }

                   if (!http_request) {
                       alert('Giving up :( Cannot create an XMLHTTP instance');
                       return false;
                   }
                   http_request.onreadystatechange = alertContents;
                   http_request.open('GET', url, true);
                   http_request.send(null);

               }

               function alertContents() {

                   if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
                       if (http_request.status == 200) {
                           var xmldoc = http_request.responseXML;
                           var root_node = xmldoc.getElementsByTagName('root').item(0);
                           alert(root_node.firstChild.data);
                       } else {
                           alert('There was a problem with the request.');
                       }
                   }

               }