// constants to define the title of the alert and button text.
	var ALERT_TITLE = "Mega Homes";
	var ALERT_BUTTON_TEXT = "OK";
	var ALERT_FOOTER = ""

	// over-ride the alert method only if this a newer browser.
	// Older browser will see standard alerts IE 6+ compatible, FF compatible, IE7 compatible -  - PC 2007
	if(document.getElementById) {
		window.alert = function(txt) {
			createCustomAlert(txt);
		}
	}
	
	function createCustomAlert(txt) {
		// shortcut reference to the document object
		d = document;

		// if the modalContainer object already exists in the DOM, bail out.
		if(d.getElementById("modalContainer")) return;

		// create the modalContainer div as a child of the BODY element
		mObj = d.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].appendChild(d.createElement("div"));
		mObj.id = "modalContainer";
		 // make sure its as tall as it needs to be to overlay all the content on the page
		mObj.style.height = document.documentElement.scrollHeight + "px";
		

		// create the DIV that will be the alert 
		alertObj = mObj.appendChild(d.createElement("div"));
		alertObj.id = "alertBox";
		// MSIE doesnt treat position:fixed correctly, so this compensates for positioning the alert
	//	if(d.all && !window.opera) alertObj.style.top = document.documentElement.scrollTop + "px";
	//	if(d.all && !window.opera) alertObj.style.top = "300px";
	//	alertObj.style.top = (document.documentElement.scrollTop+ 200)+"px";
		// The above method to deterimine positions are very fuzzy and inconsistent. Preferable to set this as a constant - PC 2007
		alertObj.style.top = "225px";
		// center the alert box
		alertObj.style.left = (d.documentElement.scrollWidth - alertObj.offsetWidth)/2 + "px";

		// create an H1 element as the title bar
		h1 = alertObj.appendChild(d.createElement("h1"));
		h1.appendChild(d.createTextNode(ALERT_TITLE));

		// create a paragraph element to contain the txt argument
		msg = alertObj.appendChild(d.createElement("p"));
		msg.appendChild(d.createTextNode(txt));

		// create an anchor element to use as the confirmation button.
		btn = alertObj.appendChild(d.createElement("a"));
		btn.id = "closeBtn";
		btn.appendChild(d.createTextNode(ALERT_BUTTON_TEXT));
		btn.href = "#";
		
		msg2 = alertObj.appendChild(d.createElement("span"));
		msg2.id = "code";
		msg2.appendChild(d.createTextNode(ALERT_FOOTER));
		// set up the onclick event to remove the alert when the anchor is clicked
		btn.onclick = function() { removeCustomAlert();return false; }
	}

	// removes the custom alert from the DOM
	function removeCustomAlert() {
		document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].removeChild(document.getElementById("modalContainer"));
	}