NewsTicker = {
        tickerDiv: 'ticker',
        tickerTitle: 'Headlines',
        tickerLink: "/test/",
        tickerLocation: "billboard",
        feedURL: "test.xml",
        pauseLength: 2000,
        timer: 0,
        currentTitle: 0,
        items: [],
        init: function()
        {
                new Ajax.Request(
                        NewsTicker.feedURL,
                        {
                                method: "get",
                                onSuccess: function(response) {
                                        NewsTicker.parseXML(response.responseXML);
                                        NewsTicker.buildTicker();
                                },
                                onFailure: function() {
                                        alert('whoops! feed was not loaded')
                                }
                        }
                );
        },
        buildTicker: function()
        {
        // build the container HTML
                var container = document.createElement("div");
                container.setAttribute("id", NewsTicker.tickerDiv);
        // build the first paragraph (for the main title on the left)
                var title = document.createElement("p");
                title.setAttribute("class", "left");
        // build the link for the title
                var titleLink = document.createElement("a");
                titleLink.setAttribute("href", NewsTicker.tickerLink);
        // add the headline text to the paragraph
                var headlineTitle = document.createTextNode(NewsTicker.tickerTitle);
                titleLink.appendChild(headlineTitle);
                title.appendChild(titleLink);
                container.appendChild(title);                // add the text filled paragraph to the container div

        // add the headline to the container
                var newsPara = document.createElement("p");
                newsPara.setAttribute("class", "right");
                newsPara.setAttribute("id", "ticker-headline");
								var newsLink = document.createElement("a");
								newsLink.setAttribute("id", "news-link");
								newsLink.setAttribute("href", NewsTicker.items[NewsTicker.currentTitle]['link'])
                var newsTitle = document.createTextNode(NewsTicker.items[NewsTicker.currentTitle]['title']);
                newsLink.appendChild(newsTitle);
								newsPara.appendChild(newsLink);

        // add the hot news titles to the container
                container.appendChild(newsPara);

        // get the Element after NewsTicker.tickerLocation and insert the ticker before it
                $(NewsTicker.tickerLocation).up(0).insertBefore(container, $(NewsTicker.tickerLocation).nextSibling);

        /* ----- USE Element.update(var[+1]) OR Element.replace(var[+1]) TO UPDATE THE NEWS DISPLAY ------- */
        //        NewsTicker.cycleHeadline(NewsTicker.pauseLength, 0);
                setTimeout(NewsTicker.fadeOut, NewsTicker.pauseLength);
        },
        parseXML: function(xml)
        {
                NewsTicker.xml = xml;
        // build the array of news titles
                $A(xml.getElementsByTagName("item")).each(function(item) {
                        title        =        item.getElementsByTagName("title")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
                        link        =        item.getElementsByTagName("link")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
                        NewsTicker.items.push($H({title: title, link: link}));
                });
        },
        fadeOut: function()
        {
                // fade out the current content of the div
                if ( NewsTicker.currentTitle < NewsTicker.items.length-1 ) {
                        NewsTicker.currentTitle = NewsTicker.currentTitle+1;
                } else {
												NewsTicker.currentTitle = 0;
								}
                Effect.Fade('ticker-headline', {afterFinish: function() {NewsTicker.switchData(); NewsTicker.fadeIn();}});

        },
				switchData: function()
				{
								$('news-link').setAttribute("href", NewsTicker.items[NewsTicker.currentTitle]['link']);
								$('news-link').childNodes[0].nodeValue = NewsTicker.items[NewsTicker.currentTitle]['title'];
				},
				fadeIn: function()
				{
								Effect.Appear('ticker-headline', {afterFinish: function() {setTimeout(NewsTicker.fadeOut, NewsTicker.pauseLength);}});
				}
}