Title: Display WordPress Posts Widget – Order By Option
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Display WordPress Posts Widget – Order By Option

 *  Resolved [JohnNadeau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnadeau/)
 * (@johnnadeau)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/)
 * Hello,
 * Currently, the Display WordPress Posts Widget only brings in the X **most recent**
   posts.
 * Is there any way that I can tell it to:
    a) Randomly bring in posts? b) Select
   which Categories it pulls from?
 * I’ve been experimenting with ShortCodesUltimate and it has those options, but
   it pulls from the internal website (not an external WordPress site like this 
   widget).
 * Thanks,
 * John
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/)

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * (@jeherve)
 * Jetpack Mechanic 🚀
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188118)
 * Thats’s not possible at the moment, but that’s a good idea. We’ll consider adding
   an option to control the posts returned by the REST API in the next release.
 * You can follow our progress here:
    [https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/pull/2209](https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/pull/2209)
 * Since I submitted a patch, feel free to apply the patch to your version of Jetpack
   until it gets merged!
 *  Thread Starter [JohnNadeau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnadeau/)
 * (@johnnadeau)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188254)
 * Hi Jeremy,
 * I might want to give your patch a try and think that I can implement it based
   upon your prior help/instructions and example in the link above.
 * Do any of the Query Parameters ( at [https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/api/1.1/get/sites/%24site/posts](https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/api/1.1/get/sites/%24site/posts))
   allow it to randomly choose posts (rather than by Category, or Tags, etc.) ?
 * Thanks,
 * John
 *  Plugin Author [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * (@jeherve)
 * Jetpack Mechanic 🚀
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188281)
 * > Do any of the Query Parameters allow it to randomly choose posts
 * I’m afraid not, but I’ll ask our developers if we could add a new `random` parameter.
   I’ll get back to you when I have some news!
 *  Thread Starter [JohnNadeau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnadeau/)
 * (@johnnadeau)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188343)
 * Hi Jeremy,
 * The **OrderBy/Random** option in **Recent Posts Extended** widget has worked 
   really well for _**internal**_ blog posts, showing the reader a different set
   of posts each time they browse another page.
 * It would be great if your **Display WordPress Posts** widget could do the same
   for **_external_** blog posts, rather than the same static posts.
 * Has there been any further consideration of this idea/feature?
 * Thanks,
 * John
 *  Plugin Author [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * (@jeherve)
 * Jetpack Mechanic 🚀
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188344)
 * > Has there been any further consideration of this idea/feature?
 * I’m afraid not. I’ll ask our API developers again, and see if we can make progress
   on this.
 *  Thread Starter [JohnNadeau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnadeau/)
 * (@johnnadeau)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188345)
 * Thank you!
 *  Plugin Author [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * (@jeherve)
 * Jetpack Mechanic 🚀
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188346)
 * After some discussion, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to add that option 
   in the next few months.
 * You could, however, use the following work-around:
    1. Install this plugin on the site you want to pull posts from:
        [https://wordpress.org/plugins/rest-api/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/rest-api/)
    2. Install this plugin on the site where you’ll be displaying the posts:
        [https://wordpress.org/plugins/rest-api-post-embeds/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/rest-api-post-embeds/)
    3. In your sidebar, add a new text widget, and follow the instructions [here](https://wordpress.org/plugins/rest-api-post-embeds/installation/)
       to create a shortcode that will display the posts you need. You’ll also want
       to include the `order_by="rand"` parameter. Here is an example of a shortcode
       you could build:
        `[jeherve_post_embed url="jeremy.hu" order_by="rand" wpapi
       ="true" number="5" image_size="202,114" include_credits="false" include_excerpt
       ="false"]`
 * I hope this helps!
 *  Thread Starter [JohnNadeau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnadeau/)
 * (@johnnadeau)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188347)
 * Wow Jeremy… this is awesome… thanks !!!!
 * I posted a quick follow up in your Rest-API-Post_Embeds Plugin support thread.
 * John

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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## Tags

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 * [Display WordPress Posts Widget](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/display-wordpress-posts-widget/)

 * 8 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [JohnNadeau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnadeau/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-wordpress-posts-widget-order-by-option/#post-6188347)
 * Status: resolved