// check that the search is not blank
function checkNotBlank() { 
  var text = TrimWS(document.getElementById('searchVal').value);
  if (text != '') return true;

  return false;
}

// Whitespace trim function -- leading and ending whitespace only
function TrimWS(str) {
  while(str.charAt(0) == (" ")) {
    str = str.substring(1);
  }
  while(str.charAt(str.length-1) == " ") {
    str = str.substring(0,str.length-1);
  }
  return str;
}