Correct number for each item in will_paginate list?

Question

I'm using the will_paginate gem in my Rails app and loop through an array of model instances which are rendered on the page and limited to 5 per page. Before I added will_paginate I numbered each item with a simple <% i += 1 %> which of course went +1 with each loop through the array, and worked fine.

But now that I'm using will_paginate the count restarts on each page, so page 1 items go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and then on the second page it starts over... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Obviously this isn't ideal. How do I get the count to continue as you go to previous pages?

Answer 1

A will_paginate Collection is not just a simple Array or ActiveRecord::Relation. Instead it has some additional methods defined, for example: current_page, per_page, offset, total_entries or total_pages.

You can use Collection#offset to calculate your current index:

<% @collection.each_with_index do |item, index| %>
  <%= @collection.offset + index + 1 %>
  ...
<% end %>

What can be simplified by initializing Enumerator#with_index with the first index (note the . between each and with_index:

<% @collection.each.with_index(@collection.offset + 1) do |item, index| %>
  <%= index %>
  ...
<% end %>