Puppet: Is it possible to call an instance method in a ruby template (era) that was returned from a custom function in a manifest?

Question

There is a custom function that returns a class instance.

Puppet::Functions.create_function(:'my_custom_function') do

  dispatch :make do
  end

  class Sample
     attr_reader :value
     def initialize( value )
       @value = value
     end
     def to_s()
       '<Sample %d>' % [ value ]
     end
  end

  def make()
     Sample.new(1)
  end

end

ie:

class myclass {
   $data = my_custom_function()
}

Is it possible to use the $data as a complex type in an ERB template?

Due to the "to_s" defined for the class this works:

<%= @data %>

yields

<Sample 1>

but it doesn't appear possible to access any of the instance methods (ie: @data.value)

When trying to access .value, the following error is typical:

  Detail: undefined method `value' for #<Puppet::Pops::Loader::RubyFunctionInstantiator::Sample:0x7ace1824>

Is accessing class methods at all possible? If so, how?

Thanks.