Question

I’m trying to create pagination for search results using MySQL and ColdFusion. My intention is to only retrieve the queries that can be displayed on a single page, thus making the process efficient. I tried using two queries in my function, but I could not return two variables to the cfinvoke.

The following code does not paginate, but it displays the result search results using a CFC:

<!---DEFINE DEFAULT STATE--->
<cfparam name="variables.searchResponse" default="">
<cfparam name="URL.titleName" default="">
<cfparam name="URL.genreID" default="">
<cfparam name="URL.platformID" default="">

<!---TitleName can only be blank if one or both genre and platform are selected--->
<cfif StructKeyExists(URL, "searchQuery") AND (Len(Trim(URL.titleName)) LTE 2 AND Len(URL.genreID) IS 0 AND Len(URL.platformID) IS 0)>
    <cfset variables.searchResponse = "invalidString">
<cfelseif StructKeyExists(URL, "searchQuery")>
    <cfinvoke component="gz.cfcomp.test" method="searchGames" returnvariable="resultData" argumentcollection="#URL#">
    <cfset variables.searchResponse = "hasResult">
</cfif>

<cfif searchResponse EQ "hasResult" AND resultData.RecordCount EQ 0>
    <cfset variables.searchResponse = "noResult">
</cfif>

Using this logic, I can display what I need to display on the page:

<cfif searchResponse EQ "invalidString">
     <cfoutput>Invalid search</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<cfif searchResponse EQ "noResult">
     <cfoutput>No results found</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<cfif searchResponse EQ "hasResult">
     <cfoutput>Display Results</cfoutput>
</cfif>

If I were executing the queries on the same page, it would be easy to follow the many tutorials out there. But the queries are executing in a function. Displaying the data is easy, but paginating it has become a nightmare for me. Here is my function:

<cffunction name="searchGames" access="public" output="false">
    <cfargument name="titleName" required="no" type="string">
    <cfargument name="genreID" required="no" type="string">
    <cfargument name="platformID" required="no" type="string">    

    <!--- DEFINE LOCAL VARIABLES--->
    <cfset var resultData = "">        
    <!---GET DATA--->
    <cfquery name="resultData" datasource="myDSN">
        SELECT *
            <!---JOINS FOR GENRE/PLATFORM GO HERE--->
        WHERE
            <!---CONDITIONS GO HERE--->
    </cfquery>
    <!---RETURN VARIABLE--->
    <cfreturn resultData>
</cffunction>   

To paginate, I thought about modifying my function to the following (a new query using a count statement):

<!--- DEFINE LOCAL VARIABLES--->
<cfset var resultCount = "">        
<!---GET DATA--->
<cfquery name="resultCount" datasource="myDSN">
    SELECT COUNT(gameID) AS rowsFound FROM GAMES
        <!---JOINS FOR GENRE/PLATFORM GO HERE--->
    WHERE
        <!---CONDITIONS GO HERE--->
</cfquery>
<!---RETURN VARIABLE--->
<cfreturn resultCount>

Then I figured if there is a result to return, I would execute a nested query and create the pagination variables:

<cfif resultCount.rowsFound GTE 0>
<cfparam name="pageNumber" default="1">
<cfset var recordsPerPage = 5>
<cfset var numberOfPages = Int(resultCount.RecordCount / recordsPerPage)>
<cfset var recordsToSkip = pageNumber * recordsPerPage - recordsPerPage>

<!---DEFINE LOCAL VARIABLE--->
<cfset var resultData = "">

<cfquery name="resultData" datasource="myDSN">
<!---GET DATA AND SEND IT BACK USING LIMIT WITH #recordsToSkip# and #RecordsPerPage#--->
</cfquery>
<!---RETURN VARIABLE--->
<cfreturn resultData>
</cffunction>

I figured I would return two variables: resultCount and resultData. I would use #resultCount# to build my pagination, and #resultData# to display the output. The problem is I can’t return two variables in the same cfinvoke tag. Any ideas of how to approach the the right way? I’m totally lost as to the logic I need to follow.

---

EDIT: I’m using the following code to paginate now (the only problem is now I have to repass all the search filters back into the URL because using #CGI.SCRIPT_NAME# clears them):

<cfif searchResponse EQ "hasResult">
<!---BASICALLY, IF resultCount.rowsFound is not 0, execute this method--->
     <cfinvoke component="gz.cfcomp.test" method="getResult" returnvariable="resultData" argumentcollection="#URL#">

     <cfif URL.currentPage IS 1>
          --
     <cfelse>
          <a href="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#?searchQuery=&titleName=#URL.titleName#&genreID=#URL.genreID#&platformID=#URL.platformID#&currentPage=#currentPage-1#">Prev Page</a>
     </cfif>

     <cfif URL.currentPage * recordsPerPage LT resultCount.rowsFound>
          <a href="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#?searchQuery=&titleName=#URL.titleName#&genreID=#URL.genreID#&platformID=#URL.platformID#&currentPage=#currentPage+1#">Next Page</a>
     <cfelse>
          --
     </cfif>

</cfif>

Answer 1

If your results is not huge, you can stay with the same SQL that returns everything and use

<cfoutput query="data" startrow="#url.start#" maxrows="#recordsPerPage#">

when you display it, see: http://www.coldfusionjedi.com/index.cfm/2006/4/24/ColdFusion-and-Pagination. No Query of Query is needed.

To answer your question

The problem is I can’t return two
variables in the same cfinvoke tag.

WHY do you want to return two variables in the same cfinvoke? Instead, write 2 functions: countResult() and getResultData(page, RecordsPerPage)

<cffunction name="countResult" output="false" returntype="numeric">
  <cfset var resultCount = "">    
  <cfquery name="resultCount" datasource="myDSN">
    SELECT COUNT(gameID) AS rowsFound FROM GAMES
        <!---JOINS FOR GENRE/PLATFORM GO HERE--->
    WHERE
        <!---CONDITIONS GO HERE--->
  </cfquery>
  <cfreturn resultCount.rowsFound>
</cffunction>

For getResultData(page, RecordsPerPage) using true paging in DB level:

If you want to do true pagnation in DB level, use LIMIT and OFFSET in MySQL.

<cffunction name="getResultData" output="false" returntype="Query">
  <cfargument name="page" type="numeric" default="1">
  <cfargument name="recordsPerPage" type="numeric" default="5">

  <cfset var resultData = "">
  <cfset var offset = (page-1) * RecordsPerPage>

  <cfquery name="resultData" datasource="myDSN">
    SELECT * LIMIT #recordsPerPage# OFFSET #offset#
        <!---JOINS FOR GENRE/PLATFORM GO HERE--->
    WHERE
        <!---CONDITIONS GO HERE--->
  </cfquery>

  <cfreturn resultData>
</cffunction>

To figure out how many pages there are:

totalNumOfPages = ceiling(countResult() / recordsPerPage);

Any other question?