Trouble working with Square Connect ChargeResponse object

Question

I'm able to successfully charge using the transaction API following the example on github. Executing the charge looks like this:

$result = $transaction_api->charge($access_token, $location_id, $request_body);
echo "<pre>";
print_r($result);
echo "</pre>";

Here's the output:

SquareConnect\Model\ChargeResponse Object
(
    [errors:protected] => 
    [transaction:protected] => SquareConnect\Model\Transaction Object
        (
            [id:protected] => REMOVED FROM POST
            [location_id:protected] => REMOVED FROM POST
            [created_at:protected] => 2016-04-30T23:42:33Z
            [tenders:protected] => Array
                (
                    [0] => SquareConnect\Model\Tender Object
                        (
                            [id:protected] => REMOVED FROM POST
                            [location_id:protected] => REMOVED FROM POST
                            [transaction_id:protected] => 02d1d965-51fd-5023-68f5-0fcd148a263b
                            [created_at:protected] => 2016-04-30T23:42:33Z
                            [note:protected] => Online Transaction
                            [amount_money:protected] => SquareConnect\Model\Money Object
                                (
                                    [amount:protected] => 6000
                                    [currency:protected] => USD
                                )

                            [processing_fee_money:protected] => 
                            [customer_id:protected] => 
                            [type:protected] => CARD
                            [card_details:protected] => SquareConnect\Model\TenderCardDetails Object
                                (
                                    [status:protected] => CAPTURED
                                    [card:protected] => SquareConnect\Model\Card Object
                                        (
                                            [id:protected] => 
                                            [card_brand:protected] => VISA
                                            [last_4:protected] => 5858
                                            [exp_month:protected] => 
                                            [exp_year:protected] => 
                                            [cardholder_name:protected] => 
                                            [billing_address:protected] => 
                                        )

                                    [entry_method:protected] => KEYED
                                )

                            [cash_details:protected] => 
                        )

                )

            [refunds:protected] => 
            [reference_id:protected] => 
            [product:protected] => EXTERNAL_API
        )

)

My problem is that, while some places (such as here) indicate that I'm supposed to get an array back from the charge method, I instead get a ChargeResponse object.

Within this object is a transaction object that contains all of the relevant information that I want to display to the customer once the transaction is complete, but it's protected, so trying to echo a transaction id, created_at time, or amount from this returned object fails.

I'm certain I'm doing something wrong, but I'm lost as to how to capture properties from the ChargeResponse object so that I can do useful things with it.

For instance, I've tried

echo($result->transaction['id']);

but all I get is:

Fatal error: Cannot access protected property

This may not even be the right way to attempt something like this, so I'm completely open to suggestions.

Answer 1

I managed to figure out that one must use the getTransaction method that's included in the object to get a usable form of the properties.

$transaction = $result->getTransaction();

Then you can just get properties out that you want:

$transactionID = $transaction["tenders"][0]["transaction_id"];

I'm rather annoyed that I didn't come across this anywhere in the documentation (in fact a google search of the entire docs.connect.squareup.com doesn't turn up a single reference to getTransaction). I had to stumble upon it when I was trying to reparse the original ChargeResponse object into an array using some other hack job.

Anyway, glad this is resolved. Wanted to leave this here for others.