Kohana ORM - has many through models stored in parent model - php

Question

I had many problems with has_many-through relationships but finally I found nice example here which solved most of my problems. However, according to code presented below I have couple questions.
firstly, code:
$artists = ORM::factory('artist')->find_all();
foreach ( $artists as $artist )
{
foreach ( $artist->media->find_all() as $m )
{
echo $m->name;
}
}
1) This example is probably controller. What if I want to store media in $artists to send one variable to view? Is it possible to store media as media property in artist object? (I mean for example $artists[0]->media[0]->name)
2) Is it possible to completely load $artists without this loop?

Answer 1

1) If I understood correctly, you need to get some element from medias
$artists = ORM::factory('artist')->find_all()->as_array();
$media = $artists[0]->media->find_all()->as_array(); // media of first artist
$name = $media[0]->name;
2) See above $artists is an array of ORM objects

Answer 2

Following my comment, this is what I'd do.
class Model_Artist extends ORM {
///
/// Whatever you have now
///
private $_media_cache = NULL;
public function media($key = NULL)
{
// Check cache
if($this->_media_cache == NULL)
{
$this->_media_cache = $this->media->find_all();
}
if($key !== NULL)
{
// Use Arr::get in case index does not exist
// Return empty media object when it does not exist so you can
// 'harmlessly' ask for its properties
return Arr::get($this->_media_cache, $key, ORM::factory('Media'));
}
return $this->_media_cache;
}
}
Callable as
$artists[0]->media(0)->name