[eluser]Randy Casburn[/eluser]
Hey new_igniter, I'll be glad to help, but we'll need to clarify several things first...
[quote author="new_igniter" date="1217912378"]...if I try to do any CI within the function...[/quote]
We don't "do CI". The Web server's PHP instance executes your CI PHP scripts. One of these has your function in it.
[quote author="new_igniter" date="1217912378"]I am guessing that the ajax is looking for native PHP and is tripping on the CI syntax,...[/quote]
Again, you seem confused here since CI has no syntax. PHP has syntax that is executed by the PHP server instance run by the web server. Also, ajax is not looking for anything to come back from the server other than text.
[quote author="new_igniter" date="1217912378"]but am hoping someone might be able to help me to understand how to perform a query with the ajax request.[/quote]
In order to do this, we'll need to see your javascript that is making the ajax call and your controller function that is responding to the call.
[quote author="new_igniter" date="1217912378"]PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING[/quote]
This error says that you've probably missed a quote in a double quoted string on the line number that you've excluded from the error.
Looking forward to helping you,
Randy