Paginator Symfony advice for making query - php

Question

I am trying to make a paginator in Symfony and this is how my code looks like:
Controller class:
class MovieDisplayController extends Controller
{
public function showAction()
{
//Records:
//$movies = $this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager()->getRepository('AppBundle:Movie')->FindAll();
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
$query = $em->createQuery(
'SELECT m
FROM AppBundle:Movie m'
)->setMaxResults(5)->setFirstResult(0);
$movies = $query->getResult();
//$resultAmount = $query->getResult()-count();
//Pagination:
$filterVariables = "";
$currentPage = (isset($_GET['page'])) ? $_GET['page'] : 1;
$totalPages = /*Example: */20; //something like: $this->count($movies) / $recordsPerPage
return $this->render('movies/index.html.twig', array(
'movies' => $movies,
'filtervariables' => $filterVariables,
'page' => $currentPage,
'totalPages' => $totalPages
));
}
}
This code works perfectly fine, however I want to make my paginator work and I have to pass some GET variables in the LIMIT part of a query (at least that is what I found out after doing some searching).
First of all, let me ask if any of you would know, the use of the GET variables in the "pagination" part of the class, would that be the proper way in Symfony to call those? I have seen something like: $foo = $request->query->get('page'); but that does not seem to return anything (or at least not the same as the $_GET['page'] variable), or am I trying to do something that is not possible (anymore)?
(Also I do not wish to make use of routing for this)
Secondly I would like to know if it is possible (or how) to count the amount of results I would get by using $movies = $query->getResult().
If anyone has any tips or advice for me to optimize my code and make it working, I would gladly want to know.
Edit: My pagination works fine now, if there should be any tweaks to make it even work more perfectly, feel free to add a comment or an answer if it's an important change. (Code used)
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

GET and SET variables within symfony
There are several possibilities how to pass variables to controller. The simplest will be to use the routing.
/**
* #Route("something/{page}/{limit}", defaults={"page" = 1, "limit" = 10}, name="show_action")
*/
public function showAction($page, $limit)
{
}
Then you will be able to use $page and $limit directly inside your controller.
If you don't want to use routing you may also use session instead:
public function showAction(Request $request)
{
$this->get('session')->get("page");
$this->get('session')->get("limit");
}
Counting records
You may count your sql records using DQL:
$query = $this->createQueryBuilder()
->from('Movie', 'f')
->getQuery();
$total = $query->select('COUNT(f)')
->getQuery()
->getSingleScalarResult();