Using the permalink from Openlayers

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to get some pointers and general direction for a task I've set myself. (I'm a beginner, learning along the way so you cannot provide too much information!)

I've got a website (which isn't public right now) that uses openlayers for two types of pages. One is a general map view showing many wkt fields (each one is a node), the next is a specific node display that you get to after clicking on one of those wkt lines. You would use it like this: After checking out the details of each node - a typical viewer would want to go back to the general map view where they were last looking. (Via the 'back' button presumably) However, currently when you do that it returns you to the default map position instead.

What I want to do is take the permalink that Openlayers creates for each map position and temporarily store it, then use it for either a "return to previous view" button or tell the browser that this was the last page viewed for the 'back' button to work normally.

What I need help with is:
- All of the above! But failing that;
- How to approach the problem?
- Similar examples to learn from?

Finally, is this a good place to ask this type of question, or better off somewhere else?

Thanks for any help at all!
Miles