ZF2 - Retain query from form using url helper in pagination - zend-framework2

Question

I'm new to ZF2 and I'm willing to share how I do to retain parameter from form using url helper especially during pagination. I modify the answer from How can you add query parameters in the ZF2 url view helper
This is what I do:
AlbumController.php
// get all the query from url
$input = $form->getData();
$paginator = $this->getAlbumTable()->fetchAll();
$paginator->setCurrentPageNumber((int)$this->params()->fromQuery('page', 1));
$paginator->setItemCountPerPage(30);
// unset the 'page' query if necessary
unset($input['page']);
return array(
'form' => $form,
'paginator' => $paginator,
'routeParams' => array_filter($input) // filter empty value
);
index.phtml
echo $this->paginationControl(
$this->paginator,
'sliding',
array('partial/paginator.phtml', 'Album'),
array(
'route' => 'album',
'routeParams' => $routeParams
)
);
paginator.phtml
<a href="<?php echo $this->url(
$this->route, // your route name
array(), // any url options, e.g action
array('query' => $this->routeParams) // your query params
);
echo (empty($this->routeParams))? '?' : '&'; ?>
page=<?php echo $this->next; ?>">Next Page</a>
Please provide any better solution and correct me if I'm wrong.
Thank you

Answer 1

I don't have a much better solution than yours - I don't see a proper way to retain existing query params while adding some new ones. But the following is neater than manually appending & and = characters:
paginator.phtml
<a href="<?php echo $this->url(
$this->route, // your route name
array(), // any url options, e.g action
// Merge the array with your new value(s)
array('query' => array('page' => $this->next) + $this->routeParams)
); ?>">Next Page</a>
This will also ensure that if you already have a page param, it will be overwritten by the new one.
(Technically you could also use $_GET or $_POST directly and avoid passing it from the controller at all, but that doesn't seem very neat)