You might have seen this feature in Wikipedia. It shows a random article button that allows you to quickly jump to a random article. You can add this feature in your WordPress site by following two simple steps, it makes your blog more engaging.

Step-1

Open your theme’s function.php file and add the following code:

function rpost_load() {
register_widget(‘View_Random_Post’);
}
add_action(‘widgets_init’, ‘rpost_load’);

function popper() {
if(isset($_GET[‘task’]) && $_GET[‘task’] == ‘randompost’) {

// Initial session variable to hold viewed posts
if(!isset($_SESSION[‘randomposts’])) {
$_SESSION[‘randomposts’] = array();
}

// Get total number of published posts
$count_posts = wp_count_posts();
$published_posts = $count_posts->publish;

// Check to see if all the posts have been viewed already
if(count($_SESSION[‘randomposts’]) >= $published_posts) {
// Reset the the array if all the posts have already been viewed once
$_SESSION[‘randomposts’] = array();
}

// Select a random post excluding previously viewed posts
if(count($_SESSION[‘randomposts’])) {
$exclude = implode(‘,’, $_SESSION[‘randomposts’]);
}

$rand_posts = get_posts(‘numberposts=1&orderby=rand&exclude=’ . $exclude);
$post = $rand_posts[0];

// Check to see if this random post has been read yet
if(!in_array($post->ID, $_SESSION[‘randomposts’])) {
$_SESSION[‘randomposts’][] = $post->ID;
$url = get_permalink($post->ID);
}

/*
echo “<pre>”;
echo “viewed posts: ” . count($_SESSION[‘randomposts’]) . “n”;
echo “published posts: ” . $published_posts . “n”;
print_r($_SESSION[‘randomposts’]);
echo “</pre>”;
*/

header(“Location: $url”);
exit;
}
}
add_action(‘init’, ‘popper’);

class View_Random_Post extends WP_Widget {

/**

• Setup the random post widget

*/
function View_Random_Post() {
/* Widget settings. */
$widget_ops = array( ‘classname’ => ‘view_random_post’,
‘description’ => __(‘Click a link to read a random post on your blog.’, ‘view_random_post’) );

/* Widget control settings. */
$control_ops = array( ‘width’ => 300, ‘height’ => 350, ‘id_base’ => ‘view-random-post’ );

/* Create the widget. */
$this->WP_Widget(‘view-random-post’, __(‘View Random Post’, ‘view_random_post’), $widget_ops, $control_ops );
}

/**

• How to display the widget on the screen.

*/
function widget($args, $instance) {
extract($args);

/* Our variables from the widget settings. */
$title = apply_filters(‘widget_title’, $instance[‘title’] );
$link_text = $instance[‘link_text’];

/* Before widget (defined by themes). */
echo $before_widget;

/* Display the widget title if one was input (before and after defined by themes). */
if($title)
echo $before_title . $title . $after_title;

/* Display name from widget settings if one was input. */
if($link_text)
echo “<p><a href=’?task=randompost’>$link_text</a></p>”;

/* After widget (defined by themes). */
echo $after_widget;
}

/**

• Update the widget settings.

*/
function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
$instance = $old_instance;

/* Strip tags for title and title to remove HTML */
$instance[‘title’] = strip_tags( $new_instance[‘title’] );
$instance[‘link_text’] = $new_instance[‘link_text’];

return $instance;
}

/**

• Displays the widget settings controls on the widget panel.
• Make use of the get_field_id() and get_field_name() function
• when creating your form elements. This handles the confusing stuff.

*/
function form( $instance ) {

/* Set up some default widget settings. */
$defaults = array(‘title’ => __(‘View Random Post’, ‘view_random_post’), ‘link_text’ => __(‘Click here to read a random post’, ‘view_random_post’));
$instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, $defaults ); ?>

<!– Widget Title: Text Input –>
<p>
<label for=”<?php echo $this->get_field_id( ‘title’ ); ?>”><?php _e(‘Title:’, ‘view_random_post’); ?></label>
<input id=”<?php echo $this->get_field_id( ‘title’ ); ?>” name=”<?php echo $this->get_field_name( ‘title’ ); ?>” value=”<?php echo $instance[‘title’]; ?>” style=”width:98%;” />
</p>

<!– Your Name: Text Input –>
<p>
<label for=”<?php echo $this->get_field_id( ‘link_text’ ); ?>”><?php _e(‘Link:’, ‘view_random_post’); ?></label>
<input id=”<?php echo $this->get_field_id( ‘link_text’ ); ?>” name=”<?php echo $this->get_field_name( ‘link_text’ ); ?>” value=”<?php echo $instance[‘link_text’]; ?>” style=”width:98%;” />
</p>

<?php
}

}

Step-2

Visit your Dashboard-> Appearance-> Widgets and drag Random Post Widget to your blog’s widget area.

Using WordPress Plugin

If you like using plugin then use View Random Post. It does the same thing and the hack given above is also this plugin’s code but WordPress is not showing this plugin from Add New plugin’s section of any WordPress site. May be it hasn’t been updated in over 2 years, although it works fine.