How to properly load a Database row into a class in php - php

Question

I am using Kohana 3.2, not that it matters much, but I am writing an application where I am wrapping any and all returned database records in a specific class. I don't know that I understand the best way to load the database row into the class, because sometimes it is a ORM model and sometimes it might just be an row ID.
So from a controller if I wanted a list of all the users it would look something like:
Controller:
$users = User::find_all();
User Class
public static function find_all()
{
$users_model = ORM::factory('user')->find_all();
$users = array();
foreach ($users_model as $user_model)
{
$users[] = User::instance($user_model);
}
return $users;
}
That works great, but sometimes I need to load a user object with just an id, like after some action, again a example:
Controller
$user_id = $_POST['user_id'];
$user = User::instance($user_id);
So is the User class responsible for trying to identify if an ID or a ORM object was passed into it. It seems like that isn't right for good OOP practices, but I am really not sure what the best way to do it is. What I have been currently doing is in the construct:
public function __construct($user, $load = 'model')
{
if ($load == 'model')
{
$this->user_model = $user;
}
if ($load == 'id')
{
$this->user_model = ORM::factory('user', $user);
}
}
But that really just doesn't feel right. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

If you already have a user model that extends ORM then you probably don't need static methods in the class to get all users or to get a particular user.
In your controller you can just do to get all the users
$users = ORM::factory('user')->find_all();
To get a single user
$user = ORM::factory('user', $user_id);
If you still want to go down the wrapping route you could use functions like so
public static function all() {
$users = ORM::factory('user')->find_all();
if (count($users)) {
return $users;
}
return false;
}
public static function get($user_id) {
$user = ORM::factory('user', $user_id);
if ($user->id) {
return $user;
}
return false;
}

Answer 2

In your controller, use the ORM to get the user based on the ID.
$user_id = $_POST['user_id'];
$user = ORM::factory('user', $user_id);
Or given that you already have a find all in your user class, add a find_one() method:
User Class
public static function find_one($user_id)
{
$user = ORM::factory('user', $user_id);
return $user;
}
Controller
$user_id = $_POST['user_id'];
$user = User::find_one($user_id);
See the Kohana docs.
http://kohanaframework.org/3.1/guide/orm/using#finding-an-object
http://kohanaframework.org/3.1/guide/orm/examples/simple

Answer 3

Maybe like this:
public function __construct($user)
{
$this->user_model = is_object($user) ? $user : ORM::factory('user', (int)$user);
}