title: return object from function is undefined from $.post in jquery
body: <p>I've a jquery post function that returns a data object from a php code block.</p>
  
  <pre><code>$.post("get_chat_history.php", {
      item_id : item_id,
      participant_1 : participant_1,
      participant_2 : participant_2
  }, function(data) {
      alert(data);
  
      return data;
  
  });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>this is called from the following function in another javascript file</p>
  
  <pre><code>var data = getChatHistory(current_member_id,item_global["user"]    ["member_id"],item_global["id"]);
  alert(data);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>now inside the $.post the alert(data) throws out the correct values in json format, but when I test the same value returned to the calling function I get undefined.</p>
  
  <p>Is there something I'm missing as I want to keep this function generic and callable from elsewhere??</p>
  
  <p>Regards,</p>
  
  <p>Sapatos</p>