How can I change the number of items in a view only for the first page?

Question

I'm trying to build a view with a different number of items for the first page (2 items) than the others (3 items). How can I build it to avoid skipping items ?
I made tests using hook_views_pre_build() but the result isn't conclusive as the second page will miss one item (item C):

Here is my current code:

function MYMODULE_views_pre_build(&$view) {
  if ($view->name == 'my_view' && empty($_GET['page']) {
    //The view normally has 3 items per page, put 2 for the first page.
    $view->items_per_page = 2;
  }
}

And here is the result I obtain:

First page:

• item A
• item B

Second page:

• item D
• item E
• item F

As you can see, item C is missing because setting the number of items per page to 3 imply that the first page also has 3 items.

Is there another way to get this working ?

Answer 1

This is how I got it working, use two hooks. Assuming we have a view called my_view and the display is page_1.

Pre-build: Set the items per page to 10 for the first page.

Pre-render: Add an additional CSS class to the view.

/**
 * Implements hook_views_pre_build().
 */
function my_module_views_pre_build(ViewExecutable $view) {
  if ($view->id() === 'my_view' && $view->current_display === 'page_1') {
    // Page is zero indexed: first page is NULL or 0.
    if (!$view->getRequest()->query->get('page')) {
      // Default is 9, we set it to 10.
      $view->setItemsPerPage(10);
    }
    else {
      // Set the offset on subsequent pages, because we have one more on the first page.
      $view->setOffset(1);
    }
  }
}

/**
 * Implements hook_views_pre_render().
 */
function my_module_views_pre_render(ViewExecutable $view) {
  if ($view->id() === 'my_view' && $view->current_display === 'page_1' && !$view->getCurrentPage()) {
    // Add CSS class for first page.
    $view->display_handler->setOption(
      'css_class',
      $view->display_handler->getOption('css_class') . ' is-first-page'
    );

    // To attach a library, use:
    // $view->element['#attached']['library'][] = 'my_module/view-first-page';
  }
}

Answer 2

Assuming Drupal 7:

What you can do is have two different displays for your view.

This requires the first display to be a 'block' and the second to be a 'page'.

The first display you will change the pager to "Display a specified number of items" and set the number of items to show to 2.

Enable the "more link".

On the second display you change the number of items to 3 and set the offset to 2.

Currently there is no way to have a view's page display have a more link to another display or view.

This only works from a block display to a page display, tho you could have your block display in a panels page.

Answer 3

You could use the offset property to do something like this:

function MYMODULE_views_pre_build(&$view) {
  if ($view->name == 'my_view') {
    // The view normally has 3 items per page, put 2 for the first page.
    if (!isset($_GET['page']) || $_GET['page'] <= 0) {
      $view->items_per_page = 2;
    }
    else {
      $view->offset = -1;
    }
  }
}

Not really the cleanest way to do this since you'll need to change those hardcoded numbers if you change the number of items in the view... But it's fast and it works.