Question

I’m thinking of returning errors that ocurred inside a model, the following way:

class Data extends CI_Model {  
     private $errors_list

     private function Set_error($control,$error_string){
          $this->errors_list[][$control] = $error_string; 
     } 

     public function Get_errors($control){
          // logic
          return $errors_array;
     }

     public function Data(){
          // error happens
          $this->set_error('User','Your db seems to be empty!');
          $this->set_error('Dev','// DB error in full');
          return false;
     }
}

This way I can treat them on the controller:

class Data extends CI_Controller {
     public function index(){
          $this->load->model('Data');
          $data = $this->data->data();
          if(!$data)
          // send $this->data->get_errors() to user and logs
          else
              // send $data to view
     }
}

Is that a good idea? What are the potential drawbacks, and is there a better way to go about treating db operations/data validation errors?

New “evidence”: http://www.firehed.net/mvc-model-data-validation

Answer 1

CRUD is for the model. What would be better is to have the model throw an exception back to the controller. The controller catches it and does whatever needs to be done.

Model:

class Data_model extends CI_Model {  
    public function getData($id){
        if( /* something worthy of an error */) {
            throw new Exeption('Your db seems to be empty!');
        }    
    }
}

Controller:

class Data extends CI_Controller {
    public function index(){
        $this->load->model('Data_model','', 'data');
        try {
            $data = $this->data->getData();
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            // send $e->getMessage() to user and logs
        }
        // send $data to view
    }
}