Two Gripes
1. These work back-to-front: If I press the View Next Button, it shows me the topic
above, not the topic
below the topic I am reading. Exactly the opposite occurs for the View Previous Button.
This is the right way. View NEXT takes you to the NEXT most recent post - if you pressed "view next" and it took you to an older post, I think you'd be equally unimpressed.
It all depends on what you mean by "Next" and "Previous"
In the context of a database listing "Next" usually means the one
below and "Previous" means the one
above. If you want to it to mean "Older" or "Newer" why not do so?
2. I do a search, come up with a list of topics and open the first topic found. When I press View Next it does not take me to the next result from my search. To do that, I have to press the back button on the browser, and select the next item manually. A very long winded procedure; particularly if there many topics found by the search
Again, this is correct. It navigates you within the sub-forum in which the topic appears. This is the way the forum script works.
I am sorry, but I must disagree. What you are saying is that this is the way the buttons work, so it must be correct.
In every database I have come across or been involved in, when a query has produced a sub-set of the database all navigation is related to the subset. To give an example off the top of my head: I have a database showing all the immigrants to England (it's
only an example
) and perform a query for all from Albania. This produces a list. When I look at the details for one person and then press the Next button I expect to see the next Albanian,
not an American or a Chinese or Zambian or who ever happens to be the next entry in the complete database.
If you want a simple solution, dont use the previous and next buttons. I never have.
But surely if the buttons were working correctly you would use them? So you are effectively admitting that they do
not work correctly.
I must say that, when looking through a forum for interesting topics, I rarely use the Next/Previous buttons, preferring to use the back button to go from topic detail to topic list. This also gets round the problem, which I should have mentioned in my opening post, that, if I click on, say, the General Discussion link at the top of the page, e.g.
DIYnot.com Forum Index > General Discussion, it always takes me to page
one, even if I am reading a topic from page two, three or 195.