Paginator component ignores limit for custom finders

[PhantomWatson]

The docs say that options can be set for a custom finder (e.g. $this->paginate['finder']['tagged']['tags'] = $tags) and José Lorenzo's answer to a StackOverflow question suggests that limit can be part of these options.

However, the following code

$this->paginate['finder']['recentActivity'] = ['limit' => 7];
$recent = $this->paginate($this->ModelName);

results in a limit of 20 (the default) being used.

In PaginatorComponent::paginate(), the line

list($finder, $options) = $this->_extractFinder($options);

discards $options['finder']['recentActivity']['limit'], preventing it from being applied to the query. This is because in PaginatorComponent::_extractFinder(), the line

$options = $options + (array)current($type);

is allowing any options with a key in PaginatorComponent::_defaultConfig (page, limit, maxlimit, or whitelist) to overwrite options set inside the finder definition (e.g. $this->paginate['finder']['recentActivity']['limit']) with the value set outside of the finder definition (e.g. $this->paginate['limit']) or with the default value.

It seems like either

• that line in _extractFinder() should be flipped around to (array)current($type) + $options so that finder options aren't overwritten,
• or the docs should be updated to say something like "most query modifiers like fields and conditions can be included in $options, but limit will be ignored".

Since the docs don't explicitly say whether or not things like limit should be used as options for a custom pagination finder, I wasn't sure if this was intentional or if a pull request is in order. Would allowing the use of $this->paginate['finder']['finderName']['limit'] cause any unintended consequences?

I'm using CakePHP 3.0.0-RC1.

[markstory]

I don't think letting limit be defined in the paginate settings would be a problem. I think your proposal of flipping how the arrays are merged sounds like a good idea.

[PhantomWatson]

Awesome. Here's a pull request: #6055

[markstory]

Closing as there is a pull request now.