Title: Random Post from Custom Post Type Last modified: August 22, 2016 --- # Random Post from Custom Post Type * [needhelpwithnimble](https://wordpress.org/support/users/needhelpwithnimble/) * (@needhelpwithnimble) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/) * My website [http://www.animewolf.tv](http://www.animewolf.tv) has a bunch of series for different Anime’s with embeded players. * Each series is part of a custom post type, here is an example on one. * [http://animewolf.tv/series/hacksign/](http://animewolf.tv/series/hacksign/) * If you look on * [http://animewolf.tv/watch-anime/](http://animewolf.tv/watch-anime/) * it has a list of all of the shows. * I want to generate a button with a ‘surprise me’ so when people click on it, a random show will be displayed. * For example, if you click on it you could get.. * [http://animewolf.tv/series/hacksign/](http://animewolf.tv/series/hacksign/) * then again you would get [http://animewolf.tv/series/dragonball/](http://animewolf.tv/series/dragonball/) * then again * [http://animewolf.tv/series/death-note/](http://animewolf.tv/series/death-note/) * etc.. * any one have any idea how to do this or if I can get a plugin for it? * EDIT: What I would like can be shown here: * [http://www.animeseason.com/](http://www.animeseason.com/) * (Left hand side, where it says ‘Random Anime’) * Would be super appreciative. thx Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [Joey](https://wordpress.org/support/users/leglesslizard/) * (@leglesslizard) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550595) * Hey, * how about dropping a little code like this somewhere (changing post_type to your custom post type)? * ``` 'rand', 'numberposts' => 1, 'post_type' => 'post' ) ); foreach($posts as $post) : ?>

Random Post

``` * Could go directly into sidebar.php for example but would be better to create a child theme and/or your own template so you don’t lose it on update 🙂 * All this does is uses wordpress’ built in [get_posts()](http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/get_posts) function to return posts of the stated post type in a random order and numberposts => 1 ensures only one is returned. You can then use [the_permalink()](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/the_permalink) to create a link within your html. * Hope this helps! Regards, Joey * Thread Starter [needhelpwithnimble](https://wordpress.org/support/users/needhelpwithnimble/) * (@needhelpwithnimble) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550596) * Hi Joey, Thanks but that didn’t help me too much. * I’ve managed to narrow it down a bit, the following code will work to some extent: * ` $randomPost = get_posts(array( ‘post_type’ => ‘anime’, ‘numberposts’ => 1,‘ orderby’ => ‘rand’ )); * foreach($randomPost as $post) ( wp_redirect(get_permalink($post->ID)) ); * But all it will do is display a random episode, which is on the right track, but I want it to display a random series, I don’t know how to do that! * [Joey](https://wordpress.org/support/users/leglesslizard/) * (@leglesslizard) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550599) * So each episode is a post of post_type ‘anime’? * How are your series setup? You said before that they are a custom post type. If that is the case then you need to change anime to series (or whatever the name of that post type is) and it will return a random post of that type. * Apologies if I have misunderstood. * Thread Starter [needhelpwithnimble](https://wordpress.org/support/users/needhelpwithnimble/) * (@needhelpwithnimble) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550601) * I’ll try to link it, as it’s difficult to explain seeing as I’m so confused myself, but here it goes. * [http://puu.sh/diTuX/3b57863985.png](http://puu.sh/diTuX/3b57863985.png) * I’m not actually too sure what controls the series =\ nor am I sure how to find out what does (I’m still fairly new to WP) * Thread Starter [needhelpwithnimble](https://wordpress.org/support/users/needhelpwithnimble/) * (@needhelpwithnimble) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550608) * ``` 1, 'orderby' => 'rand', 'get_term_by' => 'anime', 'tax_query'=> array( 'taxonomy' => 'series', 'slug' => 'series', 'term' => 'series' ) ) )); foreach($randomPost as $post) ( wp_redirect(get_permalink($post->ID)) ); ``` * What I’m working with now, probably so off but I just don’t know * [Joey](https://wordpress.org/support/users/leglesslizard/) * (@leglesslizard) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550611) * Series is a custom taxonomy so we want to look at get_terms(). * I’ve tried to recreate a very simple version on my site and this code works for me, hopefully your setup is the same with that plugin or at least similar enough for you to have a decent starting point (quite tired so ignore the messy code!): * ``` $terms = get_terms( 'series' ); $rand = array_rand( $terms ); $random_term = array(); $random_term[] = $terms[$rand]; foreach ( $random_term as $term ) { $term_link = get_term_link( $term ); // If there was an error, continue to the next term. if ( is_wp_error( $term_link ) ) { continue; } echo '

' . $term->name . '

'; } ``` * Hopefully that’ll get you started 🙂 good luck! Regards * Thread Starter [needhelpwithnimble](https://wordpress.org/support/users/needhelpwithnimble/) * (@needhelpwithnimble) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550618) * That’s so close, it’s displaying series titles! * I just need the entire series now, almost as if it would just redirect to a new series how the function for the ‘post_type’ => ‘anime’ would work * [Joey](https://wordpress.org/support/users/leglesslizard/) * (@leglesslizard) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550622) * I’m sorry I’m unsure how to replicate that setup on my end. It’s hard for me to create the code without the plugin installed :p * You can have a scan through the codex for those functions and see if anything comes close to what you need: [get_terms](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_terms) [wp_get_post_terms](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_get_post_terms)– may also be helpful. * Good luck 🙂 * Thread Starter [needhelpwithnimble](https://wordpress.org/support/users/needhelpwithnimble/) * (@needhelpwithnimble) * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550624) * I’ll try to figure it out, thanks for all your help Joey 🙂 Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘Random Post from Custom Post Type’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [cpt](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/cpt/) * [custom post type](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-post-type/) * [redirect](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/redirect/) * 10 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [needhelpwithnimble](https://wordpress.org/support/users/needhelpwithnimble/) * Last activity: [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/random-post-from-custom-post-type/#post-5550624) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics