this.prefs = {} ;  

  init : function() {

    this._read() ;

  },

  //read user preferences from cookie

  _read : function() {

    for (var key1 in gConf['defaultPrefs']) {

      this.prefs[key1] = {} ;

      for (var key2 in gConf['defaultPrefs'][key1]) {

        var val = null ;

        if (key1 == 'user' && (key2 == 'name' || key2 == 'email'))

          val = CY.Cookie.get("user_" + key2);

        else 

          val = CY.Cookie.getSub(key1, key2);

        this.prefs[key1][key2] = (val == null) ? gConf['defaultPrefs'][key1][key2] : val ;

      }

    }

  },

  // to be used only on values in gDefaultPrefs

  persist : function(key1, key2, val) {

    var cookieOptions = {path:"/", expires:(new Date()).setFullYear(2100,0,1)} ;

    if (key1 == 'user' && (key2 == 'name' || key2 == 'email')) // special case want to get that from cookie set up by python code

      CY.Cookie.set("user_" + key2, val, cookieOptions);

    else 

      CY.Cookie.setSub(key1, key2, val, cookieOptions);

    this.prefs[key1][key2] = val ;

  },

  get : function(key1, key2) {

    return this.prefs[key1][key2] ;

  },

  readDefault : function(key1, key2) {

    return gConf['defaultPrefs'][key1][key2] ;

  },

  reset : function(entries) {

    for (var i = 0; i < entries.length ; i++) {

      var key1 = entries[i] ;

      for (var key2 in gConf['defaultPrefs'][key1]) {

        this.persist(key1, key2, gConf['defaultPrefs'][key1][key2]) ;

      }

    }

  }