pagination in a custom list created with get_pages function

Question

I have a custom page that calls a function - say generatelist

the generatelist functions call get_pages() and loops through the array using for each and building a list containing various data from the meta data of the pages (yes pages, not posts! for a reason)

the functions returns the list (actually a catalog of pages) and echoes it into the content area of the custom page.

since the list is becoming longer and longer (as more purchase pages are added) I want to add pageination to the list (while keeping the rest of the page, including custom pages that comes after the list and of course the rest of the theme:footer,sidebar etc)

I saw PageNavi plugin but didn't figure out where should I use the template tag, and how do I control the number of entries before pagination.

this question is similiar to this one but that didn't really get an answer.

be glad to any help with this (actually I'm not a php guy, more of a python type, but built this plugin to help a friend and now need to scale this up)

Answer 1

I suggest using get_posts because you are able to set "paged" parameter there.

<?php

// Posts Per Page option
$ppp = 3;

// find out on which page are we
$paging =  isset( $_GET['list'] ) && ! empty( $_GET['list'] ) ? $_GET['list'] : 1 ;
// arguments for listed pages
$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => $ppp,
    'post_type' => 'page',
    'paged' => $paging,
);

$pages = get_posts( $args );

if ( count( $pages ) > 0 ) {
    echo '<ul>';
    foreach ( $pages as $post ) {
        // http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/setup_postdata
        setup_postdata($post);
        echo '<li><a href="'.get_permalink( $post->ID ).'">'.$post->post_title.'</a></li>';
    }
    echo '</ul>';
} else {
    echo '<p>No pages!</p>';
}

$args = array(
    // set arguments for your pages here as well but be aware some parameters are different! http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_pages
    // or you can use http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/get_posts instead and exclude the "paged" argument
);

// how many pages do we need?
$count_pages = ceil( count( get_pages($args) ) / $ppp );

// display the navigation
if ( $count_pages > 0 ) {
    echo '<div>';
    for ($i = 1; $i <= $count_pages; $i++) {
        $separator = ( $i < $count_pages ) ? ' | ' : '';
        // http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_query_arg
        $url_args = add_query_arg( 'list', $i );
        echo  "<a href='$url_args'>Page $i</a>".$separator;
    }
    echo '</div>';
}

// http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_reset_postdata
wp_reset_postdata();

?>