Question

I have the following method that creates and returns markup for my pagination links in PHP.

public function getPaginationLinks($options) {
    if($options['total_pages'] > 1) {
        $markup = '<div class="pagination">';

        if($options['page'] > 1) {
            $markup .= '<a href="?page=' . ($options['page'] - 1) . ((isset($options['order_by'])) ? "&sort=" . $options['order_by'] : "") . '">< prev</a>';
        }       

        for($i = 1; $i <= $options['total_pages']; $i++) {

            if($options['page'] != $i) {
                $markup .= '<a href="?page='. $i . ((isset($options['order_by'])) ? "&sort=" . $options['order_by'] : "") . '">' . $i . '</a>';
            }
            else {
                $markup .= '<span class="current">' . $i . '</span>';
            }
        }

        if($options['page'] < $options['total_pages']) {
            $markup .= '<a href="?page=' . ($options['page'] + 1) . ((isset($options['order_by'])) ? "&sort=" . $options['order_by'] : "") . '">next ></a>';
        }

        $markup .= '</div>';

        return $markup;
    }
    else {
        return false;
    }
}

I just recently discovered (to my surprise) that i had reached 70+ pages which means that there are now 70+ links showing up at the bottom..

I’m wondering if someone can help me break this up.. I’m not sure how most pagination works as far as showing the numbers if im on say.. page 30, ideas?

Answer 1

You just display the current page plus the previous and the following x (say 4) pages.

If you’re on Page 1:

1 2 3 4 5

Page 35:

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

Page 70:

66 67 68 69 70

You could also add a quick link to the first and last page using « and » for instance.

---

Example:

$x = 4;

for ($i = $currentPage - $x; $i < $currentPage; $i++)
{
    if ($i >= 1) { /* show link */}
    else { /* show ellipsis and fix counter */ $i = 1; }
}

/* show current page number without link */

for ($i = $currentPage + 1; $i < $currentPage + $x; $i++)
{
    if ($i <= $totalPages) { /* show link */}
    else { /* show ellipsis and break */ break; }
}

You can also implement Infinite History / Pagination, which is uber cool. =)

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UPDATE: A more elegant version of this @ Codepad.