[eluser]jmadsen[/eluser]
your two sets of posted code are different.
the "real" one:
Code:
public $main_page = $base_url() . 'jaz/';
is using the function base_url() as a variable (i.e., __$__base_url() )
after that, you should declare:
public $main_page;
then in the __construct() function set it as:
$this->main_page = base_url() . 'jaz/';
Before you call the construct of the controller, you don't have a reference to the $CI object, and so the url helper, etc are not loaded yet