CakePHP - Paginating an Array

Question

Cake handles pagination of a model with a simple $this->paginate(), but what should I use if I want to paginate a array of values?

The Scenario is like this:

$this->set('sitepages', $this->paginate());

This code in my index() returns an array like

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [Sitepage] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 13
                    [name] => Home
                    [urlslug] => home
                    [parent_id] => 1
                    [page_title] => Welcome to KIAMS, Pune
                    [order] => 1
                )   
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [Sitepage] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 26
                    [name] => About Us
                    [urlslug] => aboutus
                    [parent_id] => 1
                    [page_title] => 
                    [order] => 2
                )
        )
    [2] => Array
        (
            [Sitepage] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 27
                    [name] => Overview of KIAMS
                    [urlslug] => aboutus/overview
                    [parent_id] => 26
                    [page_title] => 
                    [order] => 2
                )
        )

I retrieved the same data using $this->Sitepage->find('all') and then performed some manipulations as required and form a array which is very similar to the above one, but the ordering gets changed. I want to paginate this new array and pass it to the view. I tried

$this->set('sitepages',$this->paginate($newarray))

But the data is not getting paginated. Can some one please help with paginating the $newarray in CakePHP?

Answer 1

To paginate in CakePHP you need to pass select conditions to the paginate() call.

Other data manipulation should be done in afterFind(), in your model file.

If you don't need these changes to be done in every single retrieval, you might as well consider creating a new model file pointing to the very same table as the current one, and adding an afterFind() method to that new file.

Answer 2

$this->paginate($newarray) is the wrong way to paginate. The first parameter cannot be an array. It must be a model name. You may want to study pagination setup from the manual. This will order alphabetically:

var $paginate = array(
    'limit' => 25,
    'order' => array(
        'Sitepage.name' => 'asc'
    )
);
$this->set('sitepages', $this->paginate('Sitepage'));