passing values to custom find in Model - php

Question

I have the following custom find in my model which I'd like to re-use depending on values that are passed to it.
public function _findActive($state, $query, $result = array()) {
if ($state === 'before') {
$query['conditions'] = array('WebRequest.status' => false, 'WebRequest.read_status' => false);
$query['contain'] = false;
$query['limit'] = 25;
$query['order'] = array('WebRequest.created' => 'asc');
return $query;
}
return $result;
}
I can call this function from my controller and it will paginate the results as 25 per page. However, I would like to be able to pass the limit value to the function and limit by this volume per page as required. I can add an extra field $limit to the function parameters ($state, $query, $result = array(), $limit) which is passed into the function. If I debug at the start of the function atif($state === 'before') then the value remains as it was passed in, but as this function is called automatically twice, it by default gets reset back to null the second time the function is called, so I lose the value that was passed in. Is there any way around this?

Answer 1

Try this:
public function _findActive($state, $query, $result = array()) {
if ($state === 'before') {
$query['conditions'] = array(
'WebRequest.status' => false,
'WebRequest.read_status' => false
);
$query['contain'] = false;
$query['limit'] = 25;
$query['order'] = array('WebRequest.created' => 'asc');
return $query;
} elseif ($state == 'after') {
return $results;
}
}`

Answer 2

You can store the original $limit value in a private class variable in your model and use it for the limit. Something like:
class YourModel extends AppModel {
private $_originalLimit;
public function _findActive($state, $query, $result = array, $limit) {
....
if (!empty($limit))
$this->_originalLimit = $limit;
$query['limit'] = $this->_originalLimit;
....
}
}
When this function is called for the second time with a null $limit, your class variable, which has the original $limit value, will be used for the limit.