pulling 1 random post from a specific category

Resolved kerusdotorg
(@kerusdotorg)

16 years, 7 months ago

i have one category set up for splash/entry pages on a project.
the idea is to show one single random excerpt and nothing else on the index
so far it has been cake:
– i have the single cat,
– single post,
– nothing but excerpt

the part i am missing is the randomization

i tried this:
<?php shuffle(query_posts("showposts=1&cat=1")); ?>

i thought the shuffle function would randomize the query and it would pull the “top” of the randomized group. no dice. (thanks to whoami for the shuffle tidbit)

i spent a good 3 hours searching on here, googling and trying to figure this out myself.. but i am throwing in the towel and groveling for your mercy /sadface

any help would be greatly appreciated

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

Hafiz Rahman
(@hafiz)

16 years, 7 months ago

Hi, this might not match exactly what you need, but have you checked the Random Categories with Random Posts plugin here: http://www.screenflicker.com/blog/web-development/wordpress-plugin-random-categories-with-random-posts/ ?

From what I read it you can specify what category you want as the source and how many post you want to be pulled (in your case, 1). Hope this helps..

Thread Starter kerusdotorg
(@kerusdotorg)

16 years, 7 months ago

thank you for the link! definitely worth a try 🙂

Thread Starter kerusdotorg
(@kerusdotorg)

16 years, 7 months ago

that plugin did not work out as planned..

maybe i can make a custom function for this =o

anyone have any suggestons?
Thread Starter kerusdotorg
(@kerusdotorg)

16 years, 7 months ago
ah-ha! this works like a charm!

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/91421?replies=15#post-532012
naturally replace CATNAME with your cat name
```
<?php
global $wpdb;
$rand_posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->post2cat,$wpdb->posts,$wpdb->categories WHERE
$wpdb->post2cat.post_id = $wpdb->posts.ID and $wpdb->post2cat.category_id = $wpdb->categories.cat_ID and $wpdb->posts.post_status = 'publish' and $wpdb->categories.cat_name = 'CATNAME' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");
foreach($rand_posts as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>
```
hope this helps someone else in the future

notes: pull 1 random post or entry from single specific category
Thread Starter kerusdotorg
(@kerusdotorg)

16 years, 7 months ago
ah-ha! this works like a charm!

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/91421?replies=15#post-532012
naturally replace CATNAME with your cat name
```
<?php
global $wpdb;
$rand_posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->post2cat,$wpdb->posts,$wpdb->categories WHERE
$wpdb->post2cat.post_id = $wpdb->posts.ID and $wpdb->post2cat.category_id = $wpdb->categories.cat_ID and $wpdb->posts.post_status = 'publish' and $wpdb->categories.cat_name = 'CATNAME' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");
foreach($rand_posts as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>
```
hope this helps someone else in the future

notes: pull 1 random post or entry from single specific category
kartlink
(@kartlink)

16 years, 6 months ago

Does anyone know how to do this in 2.3?
cebradesign
(@cebradesign)

16 years, 6 months ago
I guess this is it…
```
<?php

	global $wpdb;
	$numposts = 1;
	$rand_posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts,$wpdb->terms,$wpdb->term_relationships WHERE $wpdb->posts.ID = $wpdb->term_relationships.object_id and $wpdb->terms.term_id = $wpdb->term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id and $wpdb->posts.post_status = 'publish' and $wpdb->terms.name = 'CATNAME' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT $numposts");
	foreach($rand_posts as $post) :
	setup_postdata($post);
?>
```
Hope it helps.
Jauhari
(@jauhari)

16 years, 2 months ago

IT doesn’t work for WP 2.3 🙁

What’s wrong? please give completed example

Kafkaesqui
(@kafkaesqui)

16 years, 2 months ago

http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/get_posts#Random_posts

Just append the ‘category’ parameter to the arguments (read up from the example).