Ajax success function

Ajax success function

Hi,

I have created the following AJAX code to retrieve some content via a Kohana PHP callback. The callback function retrieves the content correctly. However, the return statement (highlighted in red) inside the success function does not return the result to the calling point. I am not sure why the following code is not working:

function loadContentLink(href)
   {
    var mainURL = "http://" + location.host + "/myhome/";
     $.ajax({
                type: "post",
                url: mainURL + "content/load",
                data: "id="+href+"&lang="+lang,
                dataType: "json",
                success: function(result){
                  return result;
                 },
                 error: function(e){
                   alert('Error: ' + e);
                  
                 }
                });
   }

                   
$(document).ready(
   function()
  {
    $("a.quickLink").bind({
          click: function(){
                                    var href = $("a.quickLink").attr("href");
                                   }
                                    var content = loadContentLink(href);
                                    $('#tabs-1').html(JSON.decode(content));
        }
  });
  }
);


I have even tried a variation of it which returns the content at the end of the ajax function body (see below) again without success:

function loadContentLink(href)
   {
   var content="";
    var mainURL = "http://" + location.host + "/myhome/";
     $.ajax({
                type: "post",
                url: mainURL + "content/load",
                data: "id="+href+"&lang="+lang,
                dataType: "json",
                success: function(result){
                  content = result;
                 },
                 error: function(e){
                   alert('Error: ' + e);
                  
                 }
                });
     return content;  
}

I am not sure why this is not working. I tried to debug the code in Firebug and it turns out that the content variable seems to be undefined.