#8700 Added Builder macro to count records in a safe and performant way

classes/core/PKPApplication.inc.php

@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@
 define('WORKFLOW_TYPE_AUTHOR', 'author');
 
 use Illuminate\Database\Capsule\Manager as Capsule;
+use Illuminate\Database\Query\Builder;
 
 interface iPKPApplicationInfoProvider {
 	/**
@@ -224,6 +225,17 @@ public function initializeDatabaseConnection() {
 			error_log("Database query\n$query->sql\n" . json_encode($query->bindings));//\n Bindings: " . print_r($query->bindings, true));
 		});
 
+		Builder::macro('safeCount', function (): int {
+			// Clone query to avoid side-effects
+			/** @var Builder */
+			$query = clone $this;
+			// Discard the SELECT and ORDER BY clauses
+			$query->select(Capsule::raw('0'))->reorder();
+			// Enclose in a sub-query to avoid Laravel issues with GROUP BY queries
+			return Capsule::table(Capsule::raw("({$query->toSql()}) AS query"))
+				->mergeBindings($query)
+				->count();
+		});
 
 		// Set up Laravel queue handling
 		$laravelContainer->bind('exception.handler', function () {