Previous Next
Digest
Previous/next navigation buttons are a type of Dynamic Navigation and an easy way to allow visitors to browse through sibling pages without having to keep clicking back to a directory. Clicking through previous/next navigation is much like leafing through pages of a book.
Concept
Importance of Previous/Next
Previous/next navigation buttons are an easy way to allow visitors to browse through sibling pages without having to keep clicking back to a directory. Previous/Next dynamic navigation buttons are created via Index Blocks.
Technical
Creating Previous/Next Buttons via Index Blocks
When creating an index block for previous/next navigation, select the following options:
- Folder to Index - Select the main folder for your site.
- Depth of Index - Choose a large number so that the navigation will keep working regardless of how large your site grows.
- Max Rendered Assets - Because all you need are the two pages before and after the current page, type in 2.
- Indexed Asset Types - For previous/next navigation, only pages need to be indexed.
- Rendering Behavior - Select Start at the current page with folder hierarchy, siblings, and also render forward.
- Page XML - Select Do not render Page XML inline.
- Block XML - Select Do not render block XML inline.
- Indexed Asset Content - For previous/next navigation, only user-supplied metadata is needed.
- Other Indexed Information - Do not check any options.
- Sort Method - Select folder order.
These options will provide users with a usable index block that can be plugged into a page region at the template, configuration set, or page level. Previous/next navigation is typically used in a specific section of a site, so it will be of the most use at the configuration set level for that section.
An XSL stylesheet must also be added to style and filter the results rendered by the index block. Examples are included with Cascade Server and can be found in the common folder.