Laravel 4.2 Array to String conversion error - php

Question

I am trying to assign a value to $table property in my Model, based on the URL string. There I am getting "Array to string conversion" error. Below are code level details. Can someone please help? Thanks.
I have coded my model __constructor() as shown below.
<?php
use Illuminate\Auth\UserTrait;
use Illuminate\Auth\UserInterface;
use Illuminate\Auth\Reminders\RemindableTrait;
use Illuminate\Auth\Reminders\RemindableInterface;
class Disaster extends Eloquent {
use UserTrait,
RemindableTrait;
/**
* The database table used by the model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $table;
/**
* The attributes excluded from the model's JSON form.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $hidden = array('password', 'remember_token');
public function __construct($disasterArea, $disaster = "flood") {
$this->table = $disasterArea . '_' . $disaster;
}
}
I am trying to pass required values while Model instantiation from my controller as shown below.
class DisasterController extends \BaseController {
public function getFloodTweets($floodArea){
$flood = new Disaster($floodArea, "floods");
$floodTweets = $flood->orderBy('created_at','desc')->groupBy('tweets')->paginate(10);
$floodAreaUc = ucfirst($floodArea);
return View::make("disaster.floodTweets",['title'=>"$floodAreaUc Flood",'floodTweets'=>$floodTweets,'floodArea'=>$floodAreaUc]);
}
}
}
that means if I trigger an URL like www.example.com/floods/city my model should build the table as 'city_floods' which is the naming convention we are following.
And also, I observed table name is being build correctly but throwing this error. And strange thing is my code works fine when I hard code this table name. i.e.
$this->table = "city_floods" works fine but
$this->table = $disasterArea . '_' . $disaster do not. I don't understand what is the difference. Can someone please suggest where I am doing wrong.
I working on UBUNTU 14.04 with Laravel 4.2 framework.
Edit

Answer 1

Well You cannot pass the data in that way to the eloquent model because the original abstract eloquent model have the first parameter as array! and it will try to put it in this way.
EDIT
As you can see on your screen shot - the model is resolving somewhere with a newInstance method what means that it trying to put (propably) an empty array into you string varible.
The solution
The best option is to split the logic into few Disaster Models that extends the main Disaster model and resolving them from factory like that:
class UsaFloodDisaster extends Disaster
{
protected $table = 'usa_flood';
}
class FranceFloodDisaster extends Disaster
{
protected $table = 'france_flood';
}
(...)
class DisasterFactory
{
public function make($area, $disaster = 'flood')
{
$className = ucfirst(camel_case($area.'_'.$disaster));
return app($className);
}
}
then your controller would looks like:
class DisasterController extends \BaseController {
public function getFloodTweets($floodArea){
$flood = app(DisasterFactory::class)->make($floodArea, "floods");
$floodTweets = $flood->orderBy('created_at','desc')->groupBy('tweets')->paginate(10);
$floodAreaUc = ucfirst($floodArea);
return View::make("disaster.floodTweets",['title'=>"$floodAreaUc Flood",'floodTweets'=>$floodTweets,'floodArea'=>$floodAreaUc]);
}
}