refactor: project PersonPreviewDto directly in repository instead of [NotMapped] entity property

Replace the TempData-like TotalVisibleAlbums [NotMapped] property on
Person with a direct DTO projection in PersonRepository.SearchQuery.
The repository now returns IEnumerable<PersonPreviewDto>, computing
the visibility-aware album count in the EF Core subquery and projecting
only the needed columns. This avoids polluting the entity model with a
context-dependent property.

Lactose/Controllers/PersonController.cs

@@ -84,8 +84,7 @@ public class PersonController(
             pagedSearch.SortAsc,
             uid ?? default,
             accessLevel
-        ).Select(p => p.ToPersonPreviewDto())
-        .ToList();
+        ).ToList();
         return Ok(people);
     }
 

Lactose/Mapper/PersonMapper.cs

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ public static class PersonMapper {
         ProfileCropX   = person.ProfileCropX,
         ProfileCropY   = person.ProfileCropY,
         ProfileCropZoom = person.ProfileCropZoom,
-        TotalAlbums    = person.TotalVisibleAlbums
+        TotalAlbums    = person.Albums?.Count ?? 0
     };
 
     private static AlbumPreviewDto ToAlbumPreviewDto(Album album) => new() {

Lactose/Models/Person.cs

@@ -50,13 +50,6 @@ public class Person {
     /// </summary>
     public float? ProfileCropZoom { get; set; }
 
-    /// <summary>
-    /// Gets or sets the number of albums visible to the current user.
-    /// Populated by <see cref="Repositories.PersonRepository.SearchQuery"/> — do not rely on this outside that context.
-    /// </summary>
-    [NotMapped]
-    public int TotalVisibleAlbums { get; set; }
-
 #region Navigation Properties
 
     /// <summary>

Lactose/Repositories/IPersonRepository.cs

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+using Butter.Dtos.Person;
 using Lactose.Models;
 
 namespace Lactose.Repositories;
@@ -64,8 +65,8 @@ public interface IPersonRepository : IDisposable {
     /// <param name="sortAsc">Whether to sort ascending. Default is <c>true</c>.</param>
     /// <param name="userId">The current user's ID for access-level filtering.</param>
     /// <param name="accessLevel">The current user's access level.</param>
-    /// <returns>A paginated list of people matching the query.</returns>
-    IEnumerable<Person> SearchQuery(string query, int page = 0, int pageSize = 30, string? sortBy = null, bool sortAsc = true, Guid userId = default, EAccessLevel accessLevel = EAccessLevel.User);
+    /// <returns>A paginated list of person previews matching the query.</returns>
+    IEnumerable<PersonPreviewDto> SearchQuery(string query, int page = 0, int pageSize = 30, string? sortBy = null, bool sortAsc = true, Guid userId = default, EAccessLevel accessLevel = EAccessLevel.User);
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Finds multiple people by their IDs.

Lactose/Repositories/PersonRepository.cs

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+using Butter.Dtos.Person;
 using Butter.Types;
 using Lactose.Context;
 using Lactose.Models;
@@ -58,7 +59,7 @@ public class PersonRepository(LactoseDbContext context) : IPersonRepository {
     public void Remove(Person person) => context.People.Remove(person);
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public IEnumerable<Person> SearchQuery(string query, int page = 0, int pageSize = 30, string? sortBy = null, bool sortAsc = true, Guid userId = default, EAccessLevel accessLevel = EAccessLevel.User) {
+    public IEnumerable<PersonPreviewDto> SearchQuery(string query, int page = 0, int pageSize = 30, string? sortBy = null, bool sortAsc = true, Guid userId = default, EAccessLevel accessLevel = EAccessLevel.User) {
         IQueryable<Person> peopleQuery = context.People;
 
         if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(query))
@@ -109,11 +110,16 @@ public class PersonRepository(LactoseDbContext context) : IPersonRepository {
             return [];
 
         // Then load the scalar data + visible album count via subquery
-        var peopleWithCounts = context.People
+        var dtos = context.People
             .Where(p => personIds.Contains(p.Id))
-            .Select(p => new {
-                Person = p,
-                Count = accessLevel == EAccessLevel.User
+            .Select(p => new PersonPreviewDto {
+                Id              = p.Id,
+                Name            = p.Name,
+                ProfileAssetId  = p.ProfileAssetId,
+                ProfileCropX    = p.ProfileCropX,
+                ProfileCropY    = p.ProfileCropY,
+                ProfileCropZoom = p.ProfileCropZoom,
+                TotalAlbums     = accessLevel == EAccessLevel.User
                     ? p.Albums!.Count(a =>
                         a.Assets != null && a.Assets.Any(asset => asset.DeletedAt == null && (
                             asset.IsPubliclyShared ||
@@ -124,14 +130,9 @@ public class PersonRepository(LactoseDbContext context) : IPersonRepository {
             })
             .ToList();
 
-        // Reorder to match the paginated order and set TotalVisibleAlbums
-        return personIds
-            .Select(id => peopleWithCounts.First(x => x.Person.Id == id))
-            .Select(x => {
-                x.Person.TotalVisibleAlbums = x.Count;
-                return x.Person;
-            })
-            .ToList();
+        // Reorder to match the paginated order
+        var orderMap = personIds.Select((id, i) => (id, i)).ToDictionary(x => x.id, x => x.i);
+        return [.. dtos.OrderBy(d => orderMap.GetValueOrDefault(d.Id))];
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />