[WEB4LIB] Question concerning backward navigation

[Thomas Dowling]

I recommend <URL:http://www.htmlhelp.com/faq/html/4.html#back-button>.

In a CGI environment you can often (but not always!) determine the user's
previous URL, and write out a *forward* link that goes to that URL.  That
is to say, following that link would add a new location to the history
that just happens to be the same as the previous location.  This can lead
to confusion if people use both your links and their own back button.

In a Javascript environment, there is a way to do what you want, but it
will probably fail for anyone who has Javascript turned off.  This is an
excellent way, for example, to get me to leave your site and not come
back.  :-\

If it's essential to keep the search results available, you can suggest
that the browser open links from that list in a new window with a target
attribute, but this throws some users into areas of window management they
may have problems dealing with.

In any environment, there is a perfectly good mechanism for going back
that is built into the browser.  It usually even has a keyboard shortcut.

On the best organized sites I visit, there are navigational links to
various stepping stones within and outside the site; in a series of
ordered pages, "Back" or "Previous" may be a logical stepping stone, but
that's relative to the site layout, not the browser history.


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu


----- Original Message -----
From: John Wynstra <wynstra at iscssun.uni.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 1999 4:05 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Question concerning backward navigation


> I have a directory of files that I would like to put a navigation button
on that
> would take the user back to the last page they were viewing. This
navigation
> button would have the same exact function as the Back button on the
browser. Is
> there a simple way to do this with html i.e <A HREF ="THE LAST PAGE I
WAS
> AT.HTML">Back to search results</a> or do I have to use a script? Thanks
in
> advance.
>
> John Wynstra
> Library Systems Project Manager
> University of Northern Iowa
> Cedar Falls, IA 50613
> wynstra at uni.edu
>
>
>
>