history

Adjacent navigation for history records

id: LK-20260716-history-adjacent-navigation
date: 2026-07-16
sequence: 64
type: docs
compatibility: compatible
component: `documentation`
scope: `tools/docs/`
scope: `site/history/records/`

Context

The complete timeline linked every recorded change, but a reader who opened one detail page had to return to the index before continuing chronologically. Dates and filenames could not safely identify adjacent records because several changes may share one date.

Decision and rationale

Use validated history sequence metadata to add adjacent-record links at the end of every rendered history detail page. Previous change means the record with sequence - 1; Next change means sequence + 1. This preserves one unambiguous project-history order without binding authored content to Git.

Changes

• Added responsive previous/next navigation immediately before the generated page footer.
• Showed only existing directions at the oldest and newest ends.
• Added regression coverage for link targets, ordering, and page placement.

User and data impact

Readers can traverse project history linearly without returning to the index. No MATLAB runtime, app state, scientific data, or exports change.

Compatibility and migration

Existing history URLs and record metadata remain valid. Regenerating site/ adds navigation to every record page and updates the search index normally.

Validation

Renderer regression tests verify middle and endpoint records against source sequence metadata. The documentation consistency check independently rebuilds and byte-compares the tracked site.

Evidence

• renderLabKitHistorySequenceNavigation owns adjacent link generation.
• DocumentationRendererRegressionTest verifies the generated navigation.

Known limitations and follow-up

Navigation is intentionally chronological across all project components. It does not filter to the current app or library; component-specific history remains available from each component manual.