Problems with pagination

maybe i'm old school but if i can't get something to work i start first with minimalist code; when that works i build on it.

this is my blog model :

<?php namespace App\Andy;
use CodeIgniter\Database\ConnectionInterface;
use CodeIgniter\Model;


class BlogModel extends Model

{

protected $table = 'blog';
protected $primaryKey = 'Id';
protected $allowedFields = ['title','article','image','slug','date'];
protected $limit;
protected $offset;
protected $Id;
protected $title;
protected $article;
protected $slug;


this is my controller
public function doPaginate()
{
$handle = new BlogModel();
$data = [
'title'=>'paginate',
'blogs' => $handle->paginate(5),
'pager' => $handle->pager,
'date'=>$this->myDate
];

echo view('header',$data);
echo view('listBlogsPaginate',$data);
echo view('footer',$data);


}


//and this is the nitty gritty of the view listBlogsPaginate


<?php



foreach($blogs as $blogy)
{



echo "<h11><a href = blogArticle/" . $blogy['slug'] . "> ". $blogy['slug'] ." </a> </h11> <br> ";



}


so this just lists the blogs i have , i limit blogs for each page to 5


then the bit showing links on view is just :
<h3 class ="links"><?= $pager->links() ?></h3>



//so basically paginate is a method that does a lot of work behind the scene . My advice when working with a new concept strip everything back to focus on the new concept . Once you get it working then build on it . My understanding is that basically paginate gets the total records in a database and splits it up as per :

$handle->paginate(5); // groups of five listings

//the pager in a view takes you to the next group

and if you loo at this line : 'blogs' => $handle->paginate(5),

'blogs' is an array holding the field data, which i access using a standard " foreach

...as "



where you want to filter stuff i've done this :


$result= $handle->where('category','Mens')->paginate(5);
$pager=$handle->where('category','Mens')->pager;



this is about a database where there is a field called "category"