function updateSpans(url, params) {
    var myAjax = new Ajax.Request(url,
        {method: 'get', parameters: params, onComplete: showResponse});
}


function showResponse(originalRequest) {
    text = originalRequest.responseText;
    newTextElements = splitTextIntoSpan(text);
    names = getElementNames(newTextElements);
    for (var i=newTextElements.length-1; i>=0; --i) {
        if ($(names[i]) != null) {
            $(names[i]).innerHTML = removeHeadSpan(newTextElements[i]);
        }
    }
}


/**
 * Splits the text into <span> elements
 * @param the text to be parsed
 * @return array of <span> elements - this array can contain nulls
 */
function splitTextIntoSpan(textToSplit){
    //Ta bort all text innan <span
    spanPos1 = textToSplit.indexOf("<span");
    textToSplit = textToSplit.substring(spanPos1);

    //Ta bort all text efter sista </span>
    spanPos1 = textToSplit.lastIndexOf("</span");
    textToSplit = textToSplit.substring(0,spanPos1);

    //Split the document
    returnElements=textToSplit.split("</span>")

    //Process each of the elements
    for ( var i=returnElements.length-1; i>=0; --i ){
        //Remove everything before the 1st span
        spanPos = returnElements[i].indexOf("<span");

        //if we find a match , take out everything before the span
        if (spanPos>0) {
            subString=returnElements[i].substring(spanPos);
            returnElements[i]=subString;
        }
    }

    return returnElements;
}


function getElementNames(elements){
    returnNames = new Array();
    for ( var i=0; i<=elements.length-1; i++ ){
        //check that this begins with <span
        if(elements[i].indexOf("<span")>-1){
            //get the name - between the 1st and 2nd quote mark
            startNamePos=elements[i].indexOf('"')+1;
            endNamePos=elements[i].indexOf('"',startNamePos);
            returnNames[i] = elements[i].substring(startNamePos,endNamePos);
        }
    }

    return returnNames;
}


function removeHeadSpan(txt) {
    pos = txt.indexOf(">");
    return txt.substring(pos+1);
}