Random Posts Widget For Blogger

If you’re using Blogger (blogspot), you can see that there is no random posts widget for Blogger blogs. So I make this widget for this purpose. The widget will show a number of posts (which can be modified) in a random order. This is a good way for Blogger users to suggest more content to visitors.

To add random posts widget to Blogger, go to “Dashboard” → “Layout”, click on “Add a gatget” and select type HTML/Javascript. Then paste the following code into the widget content:

<div id="random-posts"></div>
<script type='text/javascript'>
function getRandomPosts(json) {
    var maxEntries = 10;
    var numPosts = json.feed.openSearch$totalResults.$t;
    var indexPosts = new Array();
    for (var i = 0; i < numPosts; ++i) {
        indexPosts[i] = i;
    }
    indexPosts.sort(function() {return 0.5 - Math.random()});
    if (maxEntries > numPosts) {
        maxEntries = numPosts;
    }
    var container = document.getElementById('random-posts');
    var ul = document.createElement('ul');
    for (i = 0; i < maxEntries; ++i) {
        var entry = json.feed.entry[indexPosts[i]];
        var li = document.createElement('li');
        var a = document.createElement('a');
        a.title = entry.title.$t;
        for (var j = 0; j < entry.link.length; ++j) {
            if (entry.link[j].rel == 'alternate') {
                a.href = entry.link[j].href;
                break;
            }
        }
        a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(entry.title.$t));
        li.appendChild(a);
        ul.appendChild(li);
    }
    container.appendChild(ul);
}
</script>
<script src='/feeds/posts/summary?alt=json-in-script&callback=getRandomPosts&max-results=999999' type='text/javascript'></script>

To change the number of random posts will be shown, change the value of maxEntries in the 4th line (the default value is 10).

var maxEntries = 10;

After that, save the widget and refresh your blog, you’ll see the random posts right in your blog.