Random Posts Plugin for Wordpress
October 21st, 2007 | This article was viewed 1,672 times so far...
Yay! Here’s another plug-in for Wordpress blog-engine created by yours truly!
It works like the previous one but for a different purpose
The Random Posts Plug-in chooses a fixed number of links from your posts at random and displays them.
* Note : The Random Blogroll plug-in has been updated.
** Note : I’m using the same installation pictures from Random Blogroll. Why? Because it works the same.
Installation
Here’s how you do it -
Step 1 - Upload the file goldfries_randomposts.php to your plugins directory. (the location is usually at : installation_directory/wp-content/plugins/ )
Step 2 - Enable the plugin. Click PLUGINS and ACTIVATE Random Posts.
Using It On Your Blog - Widget
Here’s how you do it. Just click PRESENTATION, and click WIDGET.
If your theme is Widget-Aware, then you should have no problem dragging Random Posts widget into the Sidebar column as shown in the illustration below.
Using It On Your Blog - Non-Widget (manual coding)
For those who are familiar with coding, all you need to do is edit your sidebar.php or whichever file you wish to place the Random Posts by placing the following code<?php goldfries_randomposts(); ?>
Options For This Plugin
Just click OPTIONS, and click RANDOM POSTS. You’ll see a host of options on that page.
Should you so happen to key a number that’s greater than your total number of posts, the plug-in will automatically adjust to display whatever it is that you have.
You could also set Title for the Random Post (like “Recommended Readings” or “You Must Read This“) and even mark-up the title with tags like <H2> for example.
Lastly, do remember to contact me or leave a comment here if you have problem using it or if it’s giving you problems.
Total Downloads : 134
Current Version : 1.0.0
Version Info
1.0.1 :
- Plug-in & Widget version.
- Options available via Administration Panel.
- Allows adding title.
- Allows appending title.
- Optimized code.
- Displays PUBLISHED posts only.
1.0.1 :
- Fixed wrong version number
- Fixed the FALSE UPDATE from Wordpress in Plugins panel.
October 21st, 2007 at 10:18 am
Tried and tested. Working good
October 21st, 2007 at 10:41 am
Off-topic.
FYI, “plugin” is written as “plugin”, not “plug-in”?
“Plugin” is WordPress’ official word, but “plug-in” refers to something you plug into your wall.
October 21st, 2007 at 11:41 am
I still prefer the previous one which randomly displayed from all our posts.
But great job goldfries… never expect to see WP “plugin” done by my friend, hehe…
October 21st, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Joyce : thanks! glad to hear that!
pelf : noted.
思斌 : the previous one displays blogroll la.
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
So far, so good. Haven’t encounter any weird scenario yet
And I think this is the first plugin that takes out the page, as most of the plugin I found included page as post. Using it right now in my site
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Great! How many others have you tried?
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Another v2020 for you
Add in some options such as list post by category?
That would be nice too as you could focus out some of the category that user feels they wants to give their attention more to .
October 22nd, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Great idea!
Now I’ll just have to find a gap in my tight schedule to do that.
It’ll be part of the To Do list. 
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:50 am
do we need an upgraded wordpress acc to use this?
the basic acc i jz created doesnt have the plugin option.
and the css cant be edited.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:11 am
oh.. and the testblog i tried was by wordpress.com,
ive got a feeling that i need wordpress.org and pay for hosting?
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:44 am
I never use wordpress.com before, but I think yes you need wordpress.org with your own hosting to do all the modifications.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:18 pm
I checked my wordpress.com account, no plugin option.
It wouldn’t be wise for them to allow plugins too.
Firstly, plugins may require to edit database (add tables, for example)
Secondly, plugins that are not compatible (with latest version) would show error
Thirdly, plugins (and even some themes) might require to edit various other files like those in the wp-include directory.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Wordpress.com doesn’t allowed because of security issues
You can’t even add sponsors/ads to it.
If you want full customization and access to all the functions, Joyce has said it.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:00 am
Yeah, basically it’ll open a can of worms.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:38 am
[...] Continue reading » Random Posts Plugin for Wordpress [...]
October 25th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Its also because they’re using MU-Wordpress, not that many plugins are compatible with it yet.
October 25th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
They’re using WP-MU? Oh.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I was really going to download Random Blogroll, but downloaded this instead. But I find it useful as well, so I have decided to keep it. Nice work, keep it up!
January 24th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Thank you! I have some other plugins in mind but it’s going to take a while before I get it done.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
[...] plugin by Goldfries is giving me problems. Upon inspection, it’s actually the Random Post by Goldfries. My auto plugin update said that it needs an update, and that update has changed ownership. It no [...]
May 4th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Checked. Plugin had no issues with 2.5.1.
August 26th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Is this your own plugin? Why does it say there is a new version and it redirects to another plugin?
August 27th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Yes David, it is my plugin.
Anyway, I have no idea how it became like that. I saw it for quite a while but I haven’t looked into it………… until now.
From what I understood, I titled it “Random Posts” and the system identified it to another RANDOM POST plugin.
So now, I’ve uploaded the new version.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Nice
…thanks. I chose yours over the other plugin cos it needed another plugin to work. How troublesome.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Great! I’m glad you liked it.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Is this plugin considered a black hat? Will it somehow effect my search engine positions?
October 12th, 2008 at 9:24 am
It’s not even close to “black hat” SEO.
I’ve been using this plugin myself and Google constantly returns my site at page 1 and top 5 results on many searches.
55% of the visitors at goldfries.com are from Google.
November 13th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Cool plugin and great tutorial on how to use it. My friend has been looking for a good plugin like this for awhile now. He’s really big on Wordpress so I will definitely have to tell him about this.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Thanks! Glad you like it and I hope he likes it too.