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.