Magento dispatch custom event not working

Question

I tried the same code from this site.

It works well but the code for observer doesnt seem to be working.

I mean in observer method I have echoed some text and used exit() too. But the control doesnt go there. I tried to debug a lot, but couldnt get the solution.

Thanks in advance.

This is screen shot of directory structure of my module.

app/etc/MyCompanyName_HelloWorld.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <MyCompanyName_HelloWorld>
            <active>true</active>
            <codePool>local</codePool>
        </MyCompanyName_HelloWorld>
    </modules>
</config>

Now my module files

config.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <mycompanyname_helloworld>
            <version>
                0.1.0
            </version>
        </mycompanyname_helloworld>
    </modules>
    <frontend>
        <routers>
            <!-- the <helloworld> tagname appears to be arbitrary, but by
            convention is should match the frontName tag below-->
            <helloworld>
                <use>standard</use>
                <args>
                    <module>MyCompanyName_HelloWorld</module>
                    <frontName>helloworld</frontName>
                </args>
            </helloworld>
        </routers>
    </frontend>
    <!--Custom events-->
    <global>
        <events>
            <my_custom_event>
                <observers>
                    <mycompanyname_helloworld_my_custom_event_observer>
                        <type>singleton</type>
                        <class>helloworld/observer</class>
                        <method>my_custom_method</method>
                    </mycompanyname_helloworld_my_custom_event_observer>
                </observers>
            </my_custom_event>
        </events>
    </global>
    <!--//Custom events-->
</config>

Observer.php

<?php
/**
 * Created by PhpStorm.
 * User: pratik
 * Date: 9/4/15
 * Time: 7:45 AM
 */
class MyCompanyName_HelloWorld_Model_Observer{
    public function my_custom_method($observer){
        $eventName = $observer->getEvent();
        echo "Hi i am inside event".$eventName; exit;
    }
}

IndexController.php

<?php
/**
 * Created by PhpStorm.
 * User: pratik
 * Date: 9/4/15
 * Time: 7:32 AM
 */
class MyCompanyName_HelloWorld_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action{
    public function indexAction(){
        echo "In index controller";
        //Now dispatching event(Sending off the event)
        $arrToObservers = array('cid'=>'123');
        Mage::dispatchEvent('my_custom_event',$arrToObservers);
        ////Now dispatching event(Sending off the event)
        echo "after dispatch";
    }
}

And output I am getting (Without magento executing my observer echo statement)

In index controller --after dispatch

But it was supposed to print Hi i am inside event text too written in observer.

Answer 1

Couple of problems:

1) Change your initialization xml file structure to First Letter CAPS.

# File: app/etc/modules/MyCompanyName_HelloWorld.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <MyCompanyName_HelloWorld>
            <active>true</active>
            <codePool>local</codePool>
        </MyCompanyName_HelloWorld>
    </modules>
</config>

2) You're referencing helloworld/observer as the model to call on your custom event, but haven't defined the helloworld model namespace. Add this to your config.xml in the <global> block:

# File: app/code/local/MyCompanyName/HelloWorld/etc/config.xml:
<global>
    ........Your code ...............
    <models>
        <helloworld>
            <class>MyCompanyName_HelloWorld_Model</class>
        </helloworld>
    </models>
    ........Your code ...............
</global>

Doing that it now runs as expected (Recoverable Error: Object of class Varien_Event could not be converted to string in /path/to/mage/app/code/local/MyCompanyName/HelloWorld/Model/Observer.php on line 11). If you change the observer method to just output Hello World, it works fine. For example:

# File: app/code/local/MyCompanyName/HelloWorld/Model/Observer.php:
<?php                                            
class MyCompanyName_HelloWorld_Model_Observer
{
    public function my_custom_method($observer)
    {
        var_dump('Hello World');
        exit;
    }
}

Output: In index controllerstring(11) "Hello World"