WordPress Static Random Posts Widget
After searching for some random posts widgets for WordPress, I couldn’t quite find the one that suited my needs.
See, I wanted something that displayed random posts. But, I also didn’t want the random posts to refresh every page load.
Now, why is that? Because I feel if a user is browsing my site, there might be two or even three interesting links in my random posts section. If a user clicks on any one of those links, the rest are lost.
With Static Random Posts, the random posts will remain the same for a set amount of time (on this blog, for 60 minutes).
Download Information
The plugin can be downloaded over at Static Random Posts Widget on WP Extend.
Installation
- Just unzip and upload the “static-random-posts” folder to your plugins directory
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- Customize the global options (refresh rate, and categories) in the Settings panel.
- Go to Appearance->Widgets and drag the “Static Random Posts” widget into your widget enabled panels.
- Customize the widget title, and add a limit for how many posts to display.
- Repeat steps 4-5 for each additional widget added.
Installation Video
A video of the installation process as well as a description of the plugin is also available.
Click the image above to watch the video
Screenshot
Random Posts Screenshot
Features
The widget is really simple, but here are some cool features.
Dedicated Admin Panel for…
- Setting the refresh rate (minutes).
- Setting which categories to exclude.
Individual Widget Options
- Can assign a title for each widget.
- Can assign a post limit for each widget.
Admin Refresh Options on a Post
If you are logged is as admin and are viewing a post, you will see a “Refresh” button beneath where the random posts are displayed. You can click this “Refresh” button and automatically refresh your random posts.
If you use WP Super Cache, clicking “Refresh” also clears the cache so your users can see the new random posts immediately.
The “Refresh” feature is useful for those who have long refresh times, but want to tweak the output a bit.
Want to Provide Feedback?
Have something to add? Please leave a comment, or submit your own post or a topic idea.
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8 Responses 
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About Me
People describe me as a highly opinionated (and sometimes funny) writer. Feel free to explore my site, where you will find countless rants (grammar optional). You might even find a poem or two.
I have been using the “Random Pages Widget” for quite sometime until I’ve found this plugin and implemented it on my blog. The best thing about this is the ability to exclude categories that the latter plugin doesn’t support. Way to go Ronald!
-Mathdelane, Software Critics
This looks like a great plugin. I’ve used Wordpress plugins that put related posts, but those obviously accomplishes another purpose. Thanks for the helpful review.
It would be nice if you could find some software that categorized all of your threads based upon a set of pre-defined attributes like the Music Genome Project does for music:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Genome_Project
Then you could deliver a list of “like interest” threads to your readers.
I use other random posts plugin, but static random widget is more useful for me.
I AM working with wordpress and this seems
like a good idea. Thanks
Hi,
is it possible to add the random posts after the single post content?
and how to show the excerpt?
Those are good feature requests. I don’t plan on messing with the plugin for the next few months due to other projects, but I will keep that in mind for future features.
nice plugin, thanks.