Fatal error: Call to undefined method stdClass::AddAddress() in PHP mailer - php

Question

I'm trying to send an e-mail to multiple e-mail address in my database. Here is my current code.I need to have them query my database and send the e-mail to each e-mail address.It is working but email was send to the first e-mail address only, and got an error "Fatal error: Call to undefined method stdClass::AddAddress()".Where am I going wrong here?
<?php
$elist = $database->getRows("SELECT * FROM `emails`");
foreach($elist as $emails){
$frm = 'test#gmail.com';
$sub = 'Weekly Work Report';
ob_start();
include_once('mail_content.php');
$mail_body = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
$to = $emails['email'];
$mailstatus = lm_mail('1', '2', $to, '3', $frm, 'HR', $sub, $mail_body);
if ($mailstatus == 'ok') {
$response->redirect('index.php?com_route=user_report');
} else {
echo $mailstatus;
}
}
?>
function lm_mail($head_mid='',$head_mname='',$to_mid ,$to_mname='',$reply_mid,$reply_mname='',$subject,$body,$attachments='')
{
include_once 'phpmailer/mail_config.php';
if(SMTP_mail)
{
// Send SMTP Mails
$mail->From =$head_mid ; // From Mail id
$mail->FromName = $head_mname; // From Name
$mail->AddAddress($to_mid,$to_mname); // To Address
$mail->AddReplyTo($reply_mid,$reply_mname); // From Address
$mail->Subject=$subject;
$mail->Body = $mail_body.$body; //HTML Body
$mail->AltBody = "This is the body when user views in plain text format"; //Text Body
if(!$mail->Send())
{
return $mail->ErrorInfo;
}
else
{
return 'ok';
}
}
else
{
$mail = new PHPMailer(); // defaults to using php "mail()"
$mail->AddReplyTo($reply_mid,$reply_mname); // Sender address
$mail->AddReplyTo($reply_mid,$reply_mname); // replay to address
$address = $to_mid; // to addtesas
$mail->AddAddress($address, $to_mname);
$mail->Subject = $subject;
$mail->AltBody = "To view the message, please use an HTML compatible email viewer!"; // optional, comment out and test
$mail->MsgHTML($mail_body.$body);
if(!$mail->Send())
{
return $mail->ErrorInfo;
}
else { return 'ok'; }
}
}

Answer 1

In the first conditional of the lm_mail function call there is no object being instantiated.
if(SMTP_mail)
{
// No $mail object?
// Send SMTP Mails
$mail->From =$head_mid ; // From Mail id
Try adding:
if(SMTP_mail)
{
$mail = new PHPMailer(); // create a new object
$mail->IsSMTP(); // enable SMTP
// Have to manually set language if PHPMailer can't determine
$mail->SetLanguage("en", 'includes/phpMailer/language/');

Answer 2

I'm guessing you are using SMTP, because I don't see where $mail comes from.
Since one email is sending, my guess is that phpmailer/mail_config.php sets up a $mail object and sets the SMTP_mail constant, and then it goes out of scope after the first function call and the file is only included once so it doesn't get defined again.
After that it wasn't defined as a PHPMailer object, so it is cast as a stdClass when you do the object assignment $mail->From = $head_mid.
Try taking the code out of mail_config.php and replicating it in your send function, or add a function to mail_config.php that provides a factory to getting a PHPMailer object that is configured for your needs.