function inArray(needle, haystack) {
    var length = haystack.length;
    for(var i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        if(haystack[i] == needle) return true;
    }
    return false;
}

function errorAlert(thisError) {
alert(thisError);
}

function substrReplace (str, replace, start, length) {
    if (start < 0) {
        start = start + str.length;
    }
    length = length !== undefined ? length : str.length;
    if (length < 0) {
        length = length + str.length - start;
    }
    return str.slice(0, start) + replace.substr(0, length) + replace.slice(length) + str.slice(start + length);
}