Switchboard/lib/db_helpers.php

<?php
namespace db;
use \ORM;

function random_hash() {
  $len = 32;
  $alpha_numeric = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';
  return substr(str_shuffle(str_repeat($alpha_numeric, $len)), 0, $len);
}

function now() {
  return date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
}

function set_updated(&$record) {
  $record->date_updated = now();
}

function find_or_create($table, $where, $defaults, $autosave=false) {
  $item = ORM::for_table($table);

  // Where is an associative array of key/val combos
  foreach($where as $c=>$v) {
    $item = $item->where($c, $v);
  }

  $item = $item->find_one();

  if(!$item) {
    $item = ORM::for_table($table)->create();
    $item->date_created = now();
    foreach($defaults as $k=>$v) {
      $item->{$k} = $v;
    }
    foreach($where as $k=>$v) {
      $item->{$k} = $v;
    }
    if($autosave)
      $item->save();
  }
  return $item;
}