Unrecognized static methods - does the order matter?

Question

I have the error

Call to undefined method Exception::message()

inside the object calling

Utils::message()

(I am catching the Exception and replacing by the message)

The file containing this object is included (require_once) by the top file together with another file defining Utils.

So my question is why the method of Utils is not recognized. All classes are included before the main code. Does the inclusion order matter? Any other hints?

EDIT. My Utils class:

class Utils {

   private static $count;
   private static $aggregateCount, $time, $last, $previous;

 ...

  public static function message () {
      echo "\n Count: ", self::$count++, " ";
     $array = func_get_args();
     foreach ($array as $entry) {
       if (is_array($entry)) {
         echo print_r($entry);
       } else {
         echo $entry;         
       }
     }
  }

 ...
}

And here is the function using the class:

  public function updateManyWithId ($schema, array $bundle) {
    foreach ($bundle as $hash) {
      $id = $hash[ID_KEY];
      $hash = $this->_adjustId($schema, $hash);
      try {
        $this->update($schema, $id, $hash);
      } catch (Exception $e) {
        Utils::message("Cannot update hash: ", $hash, $e->message());
      }
    }
  }

Answer 1

$e->message() Is the problem. That refers to a class called Exception which is expected to have a method called message, but your Exception class does not have that method.

Look at the constructor of your Exception. You're passing in a message when you throw it, perhaps you're looking for $e->getMessage().

Read here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/exception.getmessage.php

To summarize, consider this:

class Exception {
  //construct is used when you throw new Exception (instantiate the class)
  public function __construct($message) {
    $this->message = $message; //now the object has a "message" property
  }
  //this is a "getter" for this object's message
  public function getMessage() {
    return $this->message; //return the message
  }
}

Note that the standard usage of getters/setters is to use getProperty and setProperty as the method name that returns/sets that property.