String.prototype.trim = function() {
    return this.rtrim().ltrim();
}

String.prototype.ltrim = function() {
    for (var i = 0; i < this.length; i++) {
        if (this.charAt(i) != " ") {
            return this.substr(i, this.length - 1);
        }
    }
}

String.prototype.rtrim = function() {
    for (var i = this.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
        if (this.charAt(i) != " ") {
            return this.substr(0, i + 1);
        }
    }
}

String.prototype.strip_tags = function() {	
    tags = this;
    stripped = tags.replace(/[\<\>]/gi, "");
    return stripped;
}