Problem with returned from the database in class

You were asking why the object properties are not public.
Well, maybe because you declared them as protected in the User_lib class yourself?

PHP Code:

class User_lib {
protected $customer_id;
protected $email;
protected $firstname;
protected $date_added;
} 


If properties are public, you can set them anywhere in your application like this:

PHP Code:

$this->User_lib->email = '[email protected]'; 


If properties are private or protected, you need a __set() method inside your object to change the value. Like this:

PHP Code:

   public function __set($name, $value)
    {
        $this->$name = $value;
    } 


This is a so-called magic method. It will be automatically called when you try to change the value of a non-public property.