Laravel 3 - Eloquent query returns rules

Question

I'm trying to send use models for the first time and running into a confusion. When I run a query, the rules are linked with it, is it supposed to be like that?

Model:

class User extends Elegant
{
    public static $table = 'users';

    protected $rules = array(
        'email' => 'required|email',
        'firstname' => 'required',
        'lastname' => 'required',
        'initials' => 'required|alpha|match:/[A-Z]+/',
        'role' => 'required|in:writer_fr,writer_en,reader',
        'password' => 'min:6,max:32|same:password2'
    );

    public static function has_role($role)
    {
        //$u = new User;
        $users = User::where($role, '=', 1)->get(array('firstname', 'lastname'));
        return $users;
    }
}

Controller

$u = array();
$u['writer_en'] = User::has_role('writer_en');
dd($u['writer_en']);

Which prints out the entire model rules, messages, relationship etc logic. Am I doing something wrong or is this normal?

Answer 1

In your has_role method you are returning User model

public static function has_role($role)
{
    //$u = new User;
    $users = User::where($role, '=', 1)->get(array('firstname', 'lastname'));
    return $users; // <-- User model
}

So, it's dumping the User model and it's doing the right thing as it suppose to do by following code

$u = array();
$u['writer_en'] = User::has_role('writer_en');
dd($u['writer_en']);

Instead of dumping the model, you can use

$user = User::has_role('writer_en');
echo $user->firstname;
echo $user->lastname;