Question

Why can’t I call methods directly on my object in CodeIgniter?

For example:

$campaign = $this->Campaign_model->get_campaign_from_id($campaign_id);
$campaign->load_settings(); // returns error: Call to undefined method stdClass::load_settings()

The Campaign object is correctly created, but I can’t call methods on it even if it’s within the class.

Here is my Campaign_model method I’m calling:

function load_settings()
{
    echo "test";
    exit;
}

How can I do this kind of operations then? I think I was respecting basic object logic, but I can’t make it work.

Answer 1

CodeIgniter models are just a collection of functions, there is only ever one instance of each model. You don’t return “model objects”, that’s not how it works.

The “object” you are returning from get_campaign_from_id is just a normal PHP object and has nothing to do with your model.

You can’t call functions on stdClass objects, but you can pass it to a function that can edit its properties.

// in PHP5 objects are automatically passed by reference
function load_settings($obj){
    $obj->test = '123';  // edit a property on the object
}