Merging cfdocuments into pdf without creating a file

So I was working with a dms and wanted to try not writing and reading pdf files but instead using the cf and db to display the data. I struggled with invoking cfpdfparam source attribute on cfpdf action="merge" because it doesn't take straight up binary, which is what cfdocument is returning. So I created a pointer variable and passed that in and it accepted. Kinda wierd it wouldn't accept it but oh well. Check it out.

<!--- get the pages --->
<cfset pages = beans.docService.getPagesByVersionID(versionID=versionID)/>

<!--- create array to hold cfdocuments --->
<cfset documents = []/>

<!--- loop pages and create cfdocuments --->
<cfloop query="pages">

   <cfdocument name="pdf_name" format="pdf" pageheight="#pages.height#"           pagewidth="#pages.width#" pagetype="#pages.doc_page_type_Name#"                     orientation="pages.document_orientation_type_name#">

<!--- get the page layout --->
            <cfset layout[id] = beans.docService.getLayoutByID(pages.layout_id)                     />

<!--- get xmltransform--->
            <cfsilent>
                     <cfset html[id] = xmltransform(xml,layout[id].xslt) />
            </cfsilent>

<!--- set margins --->
            <cfdocumentsection
      marginbottom="#pages.bottom_margin#"
      marginleft="#pages.left_margin#"
      marginright="#pages.right_margin#"
      margintop="#pages.top_margin#">

<!--- output data --->
                    <cfoutput>#html[id]#</cfoutput>

            </cfdocumentsection>

   </cfdocument>

<!--- add binary cfdocument to the  --->
<cfset arrayappend(documents,pdf_name) />

</cfloop>


<!--- merge cfdocuments into 1 pdf. this will return some binary --->
<cfpdf action="merge" name="final">

   <cfloop from="1" to="#arraylen(documents)#" index="i">

<!--- set pointer for cfpdfparam source, this part took me forever to figure out because the source attribute is looking for a pointer variable. you can't just pass in the binary  --->
            <cfset pointer = documents[i]/>

            <cfpdfparam source="pointer">

   </cfloop>

</cfpdf>

<!--- output the pdf --->
<cfcontent type="application/pdf" variable="#tobinary(final)#" reset="No"  >