pagination and factory in laravel4 - php

Question

Consider this code taken from here.
public function getIndex()
{
$posts = Post::orderBy('id','desc')->paginate(10);
// For Laravel 4.2 use getFactory() instead of getEnvironment() method.
$posts->getEnvironment()->setViewName('pagination::simple');
$this->layout->title = 'Home Page | Laravel 4 Blog';
$this->layout->main = View::make('home')->nest('content','index',compact('posts'));
}
As I understand it, pagination limits the number of rows, so I think paginate(10) means select first ten rows in the database. But I absolutely don't understand this.
// For Laravel 4.2 use getFactory() instead of getEnvironment() method.
$posts->getEnvironment()->setViewName('pagination::simple');
or
$posts->getFactory()->setViewName('pagination::simple');
And everything below. Mainly I don't understand what factory means and how it relates to pagination. I went to the laravel docs on Illuminate\Pagination\Factory and Illuminate\View\View but I can't find the meaning of factory. Can anyone explain the code above?

Answer 1

You are essentially setting how the pagination is output in HTML by selecting a specific paginator view, this allows you to have more than one type in an application or use different to the default.
Using multiple pagination types in the same application
Sometimes, you may want to use different pagination types across your
application. By default, Laravel will use the type specified in your
app/config/view.php file, so you need to override this setting when
you wish to use another type. Here is how to do so.
// This code should be in a controller or a route Closure.
// Let’s use the good old example of a list of blog posts.
$articles = Article::paginate(5);
Paginator::setViewName('pagination::simple');
/*
Alternatively, you could also use this to achieve the same result:
$articles->getEnvironment()->setViewName('pagination::simple');
For those who would like to know what’s happening under the hood, here is a more
detailed explanation:
1. Calling paginate() on an Eloquent model or a query builder will return an
instance of \Illuminate\Pagination\Paginator
2. Then, we need to get the related \Illuminate\Pagination\Environment of this
paginator via the well-named getEnvironment() method.
3. Finally, we can specify the pagination type we need. The default value is
'pagination::slider'.
The pagination types that are available by default are located in the
vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Pagination/views directory.
*/
Source: http://laravel-tricks.com/tricks/using-multiple-pagination-types-in-the-same-application