$payment->getMethodInstance()->getCode() not working in observer for credit card payments

Question

I'm trying to modify the payment block on the order detail page in backend. Therefore I've created an observer which is listening to following event:

payment_info_block_prepare_specific_information

Now, when I'm trying to get the payment code with

$payment = $observer->getEvent()->getPayment();
$paymentmethod = $payment->getMethodInstance()->getCode();

I do get following error for credit card payments (Authorize.net) only:

PHP Fatal error:  Call to a member function getCode()

Orders placed by using PayPal Express Checkout work though. Do I miss something? I appreciate any help.

Magento ver. 1.14.2.4

Answer 1

There's a shorter and more direct way to the data you want. The method code is stored on the payment info instance (sales_flat_order_payment) as column method.

That means:

$payment = $observer->getEvent()->getPayment();
$paymentmethod = $payment->getMethod();

That should give you the payment method code (as a string) in $paymentmethod.