will_paginate JSON array - ruby-on-rails

Question

Decided to JSONify with Redis my site. How do I get will_paginate to work with json?
# games.html.erb
<%= js_will_paginate #games, renderer: BootstrapPagination::Rails, class: 'pagination-sm', previous_label: "←".html_safe, next_label: "→".html_safe, page_links: false %>
This is the error I get:
# undefined method `total_pages' for #<Array:0x007f90ebc05cf0> ln 23 of will_paginate_helper.rb
ln23: will_paginate(collection, options.merge(:renderer => WillPaginateHelper::WillPaginateJSLinkRenderer))
And my will_paginate_helper:
# will_paginate_helper.rb
module WillPaginateHelper
class WillPaginateJSLinkRenderer < BootstrapPagination::Rails
def prepare(collection, options, template)
options[:params] ||= {}
options[:params]['_'] = nil
super(collection, options, template)
end
protected
def link(text, target, attributes = {})
if target.is_a? Fixnum
attributes[:rel] = rel_value(target)
target = url(target)
end
#template.link_to(target, attributes.merge(remote: true)) do
text.to_s.html_safe
end
end
end
def js_will_paginate(collection, options = {})
will_paginate(collection, options.merge(:renderer => WillPaginateHelper::WillPaginateJSLinkRenderer))
end
end
when I play around with the cli below the nomethoderror exception...
>> collection
=> [{"id"=>8199, "start_time"=>nil, "game_date"=>"2016-10-23", ... etc }]
>> collection.first
=> {"id"=>8199, "start_time"=>nil, ... etc
Do I need to convert collection to something will_paginate can work with or do I re-write/override js_will_paginate? Thank you!

Answer 1

Figured it out.
added require 'will_paginate/array' to my will_paginate_helper.rb and then paginated the collection AFTER .to_json, e.g. in my helper (or your controller):
games = Game.order(game_date: :desc).postgame.to_json
#games = Oj.load games
#games = #games.paginate(page: params[:page], per_page: 10)
Works with will_paginate or js_will_paginate just as before.