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Random Post Plugin – Redirect URL to Post

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Random Post Plugin – Redirect URL to Post

by Christoph

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Description

Redirect your visitors to

  • a random post
  • your last (latest) post
  • your first (oldest) post
  • the previous or next post
  • or a combination of conditions, for example a random post among your last 10 posts, or the latest post from at least 3 months ago, or the latest post of a specific author.

Features | Examples | Documentation | Latest Development Blog Post

A magic URL takes you to the right post

This plugin provides a URL (link) that takes you directly to a post in single-post view. This post is determined by the query parameter ?redirect_to= and optional others.

While the URL remains the same, its target changes depending on the available posts at the time when somebody enters it. That means you can use the same static URL in a menu, with a button or in a newsletter and the plugin finds out the correct target.

Simply enter the URL of your WordPress site into your browser and add ?redirect_to=… to the end.

Possible values for redirect_to are:

  • last or latest – The URL will redirect to the last (latest) post.
  • first or oldest – The URL will redirect to the first (oldest) post.
  • random – The URL will redirect to a random post.
  • prev or previous – The URL will redirect to the previous post (by date).
  • next – The URL will redirect to the next post (by date).
  • custom – The post will be determined according to the mandatory parameter orderby and the optional parameter order.

You can also limit the scope of considered posts by additional filter parameters, such as &s=searchaword or &cat=2, or use an offset to go to the second latest or to the post before the previous. The parameter random combined with count and bias lets you pick the latest (or oldest) posts with a different probability than the rest.

Caching

The plugin offers caching of database results.

Settings and Parameters

There is no settings page in the backend. You configure the plugin entirely through the query parameters in the URL.

Please find more information about parameters and troubleshooting on the plugin website.

Examples for URLs

Note: Replace “http://www.example.com/” with your own website location. Spaces are written as “%20”.

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest – redirects to the latest post

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&pk_campaign=random – redirects to a random post and tracks the visit

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=prev – redirects to the previous post

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&each_once=rewind – redirects to a random post, avoiding duplicates, and then starts over again

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=prev&offset=1 – redirects to the post before the previous post

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10 – redirects to a random post among the 10 latest posts

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10&bias=80 – redirects to a random post. The plugin picks one from the latest 10 with a probability of 80% and from the rest with a probability of 20%

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10&offset=1 – redirects to a random post among the 10 posts that come after the latest

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&after=1%20month%20ago – redirects to a random post among the posts that are not older than 1 month

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&exclude=4,7 – redirects to the latest post, excluding the posts with the IDs 4 and 7

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&offset=1 – redirects to the second latest post

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=custom&orderby=comment_count&order=DESC – redirects to the post with the most comments

http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&s=iaido&default_redirect_to=12&cache=200 – redirects to the latest post that contains the word ‘iaido’ or, if nothing can be found, to the page or post with the ID 12; use a cache with a 200 second lifetime

Button

The plugin also provides a shortcode [redirect_to_post_button] to create a simple button. Some parameters are available.

A button that links to a random post is a great way to increase your visitors’ on-site engagement and therefore your SEO ranking!

(video by WPBeginner)

If you find this plugin useful, please give it a 5-star rating. Thank you!

  1. Find the plugin in the list at the admin backend and click to install it. Or, upload the ZIP file through the admin backend. Or, upload the unzipped redirect-url-to-post folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.

After the first activation you will find a screen with some examples of URLs for your blog.

1. How to find out the cause if something doesn’t work?

The first thing you should try is to add &rutpdebug (or &rutpdebug=2 for advanced users) to the URL. This will show you more details about what is happening in the background. At the end you will see the URL of the resulting post without actually going there.

2. What if more than one post match the criteria (e.g. two have the same comment_count)?

There can be only one winner. The post that would be first in the list (as determined by WP) beats all others.

3. The random parameter redirects always to the same post

You probably use a caching plugin or service that also caches query strings. Try adding an exception for the string “redirect_to=”. If you use Cloudflare, you can try their Page Rules.

4. Which URL can serve as the base?

Obviously only URLs of the WordPress blog where this plugin is installed.

5. The post cannot be found but I’m sure that it’s there and that it’s public

The most common reason is that this post belongs to a special post type. Try the parameter “post_type”, for example “post_type=product”.

6. Can I help translate?

Thank you! Please continue here.

Works great, more features needed

By jaribali1 on November 18, 2024

The plugin works great as is but it would be nice to be able to send payloads to the selected post (e.g. /?redirect_to=random&action=doSomething)

Kindly look into this. You are doing great 👌

Simple and Seamless!

By halfcrackedguru on June 7, 2024

Excellent plugin! Create a URL using their parameters...that's it!

Very useful plugin & Excellent support!

By bonnie333 on March 11, 2024

Very useful plugin & Excellent support!

Plugin tốt

By dien99vn (meomeoinfo) on August 31, 2023

Rất hữu ích! Cảm ơn tác giả rất nhiều.

Very useful plugin!

By criserjjio on September 8, 2021

Awesome plugin and support!

Nice plugins

By vendravex on February 17, 2021

best plugins

excellent plugin, excellent support

By airdrummer on October 17, 2020

a major bug fixed the same day!-)

Отличная идея и работа

By Nikonn (nikonn) on September 26, 2020

I've been looking for a similar tool for a long time. Excellent work and support from the plugin author. I wish you success and development!

Works like a Charm

By Dheeraj Singh on August 6, 2020

Better than any other redirect plugin especially if you need it for custom post types. Excellent support as well.

Works Great!

By Tim (tjalexander70) on July 27, 2020

The plugin is easy to use and Works great. The developer provides super fast replies to support questions.

0.25.0

Features

  • New parameter fragment

0.24.0

Features

  • New query parameters to search for custom fields (post meta): meta_key, meta_value, meta_value_num and meta_compare
  • New parameter loop=1 in connection with redirect_to=prev or redirect_to=next to loop back to the last or first post at the end

0.23.0

Features

  • The cache is automatically cleared when a post is updated
  • We don’t reveal the database table prefix in debugging

0.22.0

Features

  • Option to delete the cache (for a particular set of parameters) with cache=-1 (here too, the constant CHATTY_MANGO_RUTP_CACHE takes priority)

Other

  • Added the actual database request to the debugging output

0.21.0

Features

  • Paramter post_type can also be a comma-separated list

0.20.0

Features

  • New parameters: author__in, author__not_in, category__and, category__in, category__not_in, post__in, post__not_in, post_name__in, post_parent, post_parent__in, post_parent__not_in, tag__and, tag__in, tag__not_in, tag_slug__and, tag_slug__in. More information. Wherever WordPress requires an array, you submit the elements as comma-separated list: ...&tag__in=12,15.

0.19.1

Other

  • Added more debug messages for &rutpdebug

0.19.0

Features

  • Define own URL parameters that will be passed through by adding to your wp-config.php define( 'CHATTY_MANGO_RUTP_PASS_THROUGH', 'own1,own2' ); (comma-separated list) to allow …&own1=foo&own2=bar

0.18.3

Bug Fixes

  • Reduced memory usage when not required to retrieve post objects from database

0.18.2

Bug Fixes

  • Fixing parameter ignore_sticky_posts

0.18.1

Bug Fixes

  • Fixing bug introduced in last version (random with bias not working)

0.18.0

Features

  • New parameter lock to redirect a visitor always to the same post for a specified time. Use it with a time in seconds: ...&lock=86400. Particularly useful with random redirects. This works only in the same browser and if the visitor accepts and keeps cookies.

Other

  • Cookies (for each_once and lock) have now by default a domain-wide validity. Switch to separate cookies per directory with the parameter directory_cookie.
  • Please help translate!

Older Versions

The complete changelog is available here.

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