Issue with active record update in CodeIgniter - codeigniter

Question

I have a form that submits data to a database in a CodeIgniter app (CI v. 2.0.2). We are allowing users to "edit" records by having them resubmit a record with new values and then doing an update. On submit, the form calls the vote controller's create method. Inside the create method, we check to see if there's already a record based on an entry code and the user's ID. If there is, we update; otherwise we create a new record. The creation works just fine; it's only the update I'm having an issue with. Here's the code.
view
<div id="vote_form">
<?php
$hidden = array('dot_judge_id' => $this->session->userdata('dot_judge_id'));
echo form_open('vote/create');
$entry_code_data = array(
'name' => 'entry_code',
'id' => 'entry_code',
'value' => set_value('entry_code')
);
echo form_hidden($hidden);
$score_options = array('1'=>'1 (lowest)', '2'=>'2','3'=>'3', '4'=>'4','5'=>'5 (highest)');
?>
<p><label for="entry_code">Entry code: </label><?php echo form_input($entry_code_data); ?></p>
<p><label for="q1">Question 1: </label><?php echo form_dropdown('q1', $score_options, ''); ?></p>
<p><label for="q2">Question 2: </label><?php echo form_dropdown('q2', $score_options, ''); ?></p>
<p><label for="q3">Question 3: </label><?php echo form_dropdown('q3', $score_options, ''); ?></p>
<p><label for="q4">Question 4: </label><?php echo form_dropdown('q4', $score_options, ''); ?></p>
<p><label for="q5">Question 5: </label><?php echo form_dropdown('q5', $score_options, ''); ?></p>
<p><?php echo form_submit('submit', 'Submit vote'); ?></p>
<?php echo form_close(); ?>
<?php echo validation_errors(); ?>
</div>
controller
function create() {
$id = $this->input->post('entry_code');
$judge_id = $this->input->post('dot_judge_id');
$data = array(
'entry_code' => $id,
'dot_judge_id' => $judge_id,
'q1' => $this->input->post('q1'),
'q2' => $this->input->post('q2'),
'q3' => $this->input->post('q3'),
'q4' => $this->input->post('q4'),
'q5' => $this->input->post('q5'),
);
//first check to see if there's already a record for this judge/entry
//if so, update. Otherwise, insert
$vote_id = $this->vote_model->getEntryById($id, $judge_id);
if($vote_id) {
log_message('debug', 'vote id exists: '.$vote_id);
$this->vote_model->updateRecord($data, $vote_id);
}
else {
log_message('debug', 'vote id does not exist; creating new');
$this->vote_model->createRecord($data);
}
/*
after submission, go to another page that gives choices - review entries, submit another entry, log out
*/
$data['msg'] = "Entry submitted";
$this->menu();
}
model
function getEntryByID($id, $judge_id) {
//determine if record already exists for entry/judge
$sql = 'SELECT vote_id from dot_vote WHERE entry_code = ? AND dot_judge_id = ?';
$query = $this->db->query($sql, array($id, $judge_id));
if($query->num_rows() == 1) {
$row = $query->row();
return $row->vote_id;
}
else {
return false;
}
}
function createRecord($data) {
$this->db->insert('dot_vote', $data);
return;
}
function updateRecord($data, $vote_id) {
log_message('debug', 'vote id is passed: '.$vote_id);
$this->db->where('vote_id', $vote_id);
$this->update('dot_vote', $data);
}
I know it's making it into the updateRecord method because the log_message output is in my log file displaying the correct vote_id (the auto-increment field of the returned record). But what I get in the browser is the following:
Can anyone point me in the right direction here? I have error display on in my config file, and have gotten SQL errors when they occur, so I don't think this is a SQL error. But I have no idea what could be happening in that tiny little function that's causing this. My next step is to skip the active record update and just use a standard query, but I'd like to know what's causing the problem here, even if I can get it to work the other way.

Answer 1

This line stood out:
$this->update('dot_vote', $data);
Do you mean this?
$this->db->update('dot_vote', $data);