Pagination controls enable users to move forward and back though the Watchlist and Recent Changes results a in order to move backwards in time. These controls enable users to "walk" back through results to survey changes in a continuous stream, or to jump ahead or back to particular locations in the results queue.
The 'Newer X' and 'Older X' buttons
- "Newer X" and "Older X" buttons are provided to navigate through the Recent Changes queue one page at a time.
- When users click these buttons, they will move either forward or backwards through the results queue by the number of results currently selected in the "Number of Results Selector" (T162786)
- The labels of the Newer and Older buttons will reflect the the number of results currently selected in the "Number of Results Selector" (T162786). E.g., if the Selector is set to 100, the Older button label will read: Older 100 >
- As the user pages backwards or forwards in the queue, the user remains at page top and the Search tools remain visible and available, showing all the current search terms.
- When the user first loads a page of new results, the "Newer" button is grayed out. It changes back to the black, active state as soon as the system determines that the first new result matching the current query has entered the queue. (This test needs to be made for the "View Newest Changes" function anyway T163426. Thus these tools will both update at the same time.)
- If the user presses Newer at the moment the button changes color, the one available result will display (meaning that this is really the "up to 100" button.)
- The Recent Changes queue drops older changes when they are > 30 x 24-hours old. If the user loads the very last, oldest available page of results, or loads that page by going into Oldest First mode (see below), the "Older" button grays to show that the limit has been reached.
- If a user, having loaded that very last page, a) sits on the page for a time and then b) presses "Newer," it's likely that the temporally continuous results the user might have expected will no longer be available (because they are now > than 30 x 24-hours old). In this eventuality, the system will simply load a page full of X results that are as close as it can get to what the user requested (i.e., a page of results that are discontinuous from the former "last" page).
- When the user scrolls down the page, the Newer/Older buttons become part of the Sticky Control Panel (T167932), which means we don't need to reproduce them at the bottom of the page.
'Live update' mode
- If a user with Live Update ON presses the "Older x >" button to go back in the queue, the following happens: 1) Live Update turns off, 2) the next older page of x results loads.
- If a user with it Live Update OFF uses the "Older x >" button to page back in the queue, and then turns Live Update ON, the following happens: 1) the page reloads with the user at the top of the queue (and the newest x results showing) and 2) the Live Updates begin rolling onto the top of the page. In other words, we do not start loading new results on top of an older page.
- If a user with it Live Update OFF uses the sticky pagination controls (T167932) to scroll down the main page of results and then turns Live Update ON, 1) the page reloads with the user at the top of the queue and 2) the Live Updates begin rolling onto the top of the page.
'Oldest first' mode
When results are in "Oldest first" mode (T162786):
- The "Newer X" and "Older X" pagination buttons continue to do what their names suggest. But now, as each newer or older page of results loads, the order of the page is reversed, with the oldest results at the top.
- If a user in Oldest First mode gets to the "last" page in the queue (i.e., the one with the newest results), the "Newer" button is grayed out—and it stays grayed out (and we don't show the "View Newest Changes" link, either, as per T163426). I.e., the Newer x > button does not become active again as new results become available.
View Newest Changes
- If the user clicks View Newest Changes when the number of new changes is greater than the currently set number of changes displayed per page, the "Previously viewed changes" marker (T172213) WILL be displayed on the spillover pages. I.e., if the user pages back through older changes to the point where the previously viewed changes marker should be, the marker is displayed there.
- If the user has used the "Older x >" button to load a previous screenful of results, The View Newest Changes link does not appear on that page. I.e., the View Newest Changes link appears only when the user is on the top (most recent) page of results.