Switching databases in code igniter - php

Question

I have two databases I need to connect to, which I can do in the controllers and libraries I have written. For some odd reason (i'm assuming I'm just missing something simple here) I can't get it to work in the model all of the sudden. I have read the database class in the CI user guide.
I tried making a reference to $pew when loading pew ($this->pew =& $this->load->database('pew', TRUE)) to no avail.
Any thoughts, suggestions? Thanks!
Error
PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function query() on a non-object in
/Sites/CI/nyan/application/models/pewpewmodel.php on line 15
Line 15
$this->pew->query('SELECT * FROM ExtractEvent'); //simplified for testing
database.php:
$active_group = 'nyan';
$active_record = TRUE;
$db['nyan']['hostname'] = 'catcatcat';
$db['nyan']['username'] = 'mew';
$db['nyan']['password'] = 'meow';
$db['nyan']['database'] = 'meow';
$db['nyan']['dbdriver'] = 'mysql';
$db['pew']['hostname'] = 'jujubees';
$db['pew']['username'] = 'qwop';
$db['pew']['password'] = 'qwop';
$db['pew']['database'] = 'nom';
$db['pew']['dbdriver'] = 'mssql';
Model pewpewmodel.php
private $pew;
function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
$this->pew = $this->load->database('pew', TRUE);
}
function get_forms_by_date($id = NULL, $Year = NULL, $Month = NULL, $Day = NULL)
{
$this->pew->query('SELECT * FROM ExtractEvent'); //simplified for testing
}
Controller nomnom.php
public function index()
{
$this->load->model('pewmodel');
$data['Forms'] = $this->pewmodel->get_forms_by_date($this->session->userdata('Username'), date('Y'), date('n'), date('j'));
$this->load->view('common/header', $data['Forms']);
$this->load->view('home/index');
$this->load->view('common/footer');
}
View index.php
<pre>
<?php print_r($Forms); ?>
</pre>

Answer 1

This worked for me.
[from within the model constructor]
$db['hostname'] = 'localhost';
$db['username'] = 'root';
$db['password'] = '';
$db['database'] = 'my_database';
$db['dbdriver'] = 'mysql';
$db['dbprefix'] = '';
$db['pconnect'] = TRUE;
$db['db_debug'] = TRUE;
$db['cache_on'] = FALSE;
$db['cachedir'] = '';
$db['char_set'] = 'latin1';
$db['dbcollat'] = 'latin1_bin';
$db['swap_pre'] = '';
$db['autoinit'] = TRUE;
$db['stricton'] = FALSE;
$this->load->database($db, FALSE, TRUE);
// False=don't return db object
// True =use as active record, so it replaces default $this->db
Hope this helps coders searching through Google like I did.

Answer 2

$this->pew = $this->load->database('pew', TRUE);
You load a database which doesn't exist in your database-configuration.

Answer 3

I was getting a 500 error when I passed TRUE to connect like below. I assumed (yeah I know) that I was just having the same problem with connecting. truth be told it was an ID10T error from the beginning. I was missing the mssql.so library on my local machine and another I was testing from.
$this->pew =& $this->load->database('pew', TRUE)
My apologies for the waste of time gents.