mysqli prepared statement abstraction issue

[maxxd]

Hey y'all. I'm having (I think) a senior moment here with something I'm working on. I've got a small database abstraction class that I've written, and I'm trying to do as little work as possible to extend it a bit. Basically, I don't want to have to do a simple deferral method to go from my client code to the mysqli instance, but I also want some control over some of the mysqli functionality. So I'm attempting to implement a __call() magic method that'll pass the method through to the internal mysqli instance. Here's the method:

class myDBAbstraction{
 
/*    other stuff....    */
 
    public function __call($method, $args){
        if(method_exists($this->_conn,$method)){
            $tmp = $this->_conn->$method($args);
            if($tmp === false){
                die("<p>Error {$this->_conn->errno}: {$this->_conn->error}</p>");
            }
            return $tmp;
        }
        $this->error = "Bad call: {$method}";
        return false;
    }
}

Note that $this->_conn is a mysqli() instance stored as a private class property.

The call is simple:

class myClientTester{
 
/*    I instantiate a myDBAbstraction() instance as $this->_conn for this class. I'm very original with naming conventions...    */

    public function testing(){
        if($this->_conn->prepare('UPDATE tbl_copy
                              SET     cpy = ?
                                     ,last_edited = UTC_TIMESTAMP()
                                     ,last_edited_by = ?
                              WHERE pg = ?')){
            $this->_conn->close();
            die("<p>Statement prepared</p>");
        }else{
            die("<p>Error: {$this->_conn->error}</p>");
        }
    }
}

I'm literally just trying to get so far as to prepare the statement - I'll work on the rest later. However, the call to mysqli::prepare() fails. It returns false but myDBAbstraction::$_conn->errno = 0 and myDBAbstraction::$_conn->error is null.

 

Anyone have any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong here?

 

Much thanks in advance for any ideas or advice!