[4.x]: Change in ElementQuery::count effecting EVENT_BEFORE_PREPARE events

[myleshyson]

What happened?

Description

We noticed that after updating to Craft 4.9, one of our queries wasn't running properly. The logic for this particular query depends on the EntryQuery::EVENT_BEFORE_PREPARE event. In particular, in depended on the orderBy property to be null for for count queries to run properly.

Now however, because of this change, the orderBy property is not being nulled like it was before with yiii\db\Query::queryScaler method.

I'm not sure if this was on purpose? Either way would it be possible to either:
a) keep the queryScaler logic from yiii\db\Query::queryScaler for scalar queries (count, min, max, etc) so that things run like they did before the change OR
b) add a property to ElementQuery, something like queryMethod, so that events can add that logic back if the query is a scalar query?

Craft CMS version

Craft 4.9.0

PHP version

8.2

Operating system and version

No response

Database type and version

No response

Image driver and version

No response

Installed plugins and versions

No response

[yannkost]

I have also noticed that the .count() function does not return the right value for some queries.

{% set searchQuery = craft.entries({ type: availableEntryTypes}).search(query).orderBy('score').limit(5) %}

This sample code does return the limit of 5 and not the number of the entries.

[yannkost]

Just checked and without the orderBy('score') the function call returns the correct number.

[i-just]

@myleshyson, in your case, the EntryQuery::EVENT_BEFORE_PREPARE used to rely on the $event->sender->orderBy returning null, but since 4.9, it’s returning an empty string.

@yannkost, in your case, it’s the combination of search, limit and orderBy('score').

I raised a draft PR, and we’ll discuss this internally.

[brandonkelly]

Craft 4.9.5 and 5.1.5 are out with a fix that covers both of these issues. Thanks for reporting!