Question

How do I get a random post in WordPress?

I would like to display a button on a page that, when pressed, goes to a random post from the blog. I don’t want a random post to be displayed on the page, I just want a link that leads to that post.
I tried searching for a code on Google and here at stackoverflow but no success.

Thanks…

UPDATE:

Here is my template code:

<?php /*Template Name: Random*/ ?>

<?php get_header(); ?>

<nav><?php wp_nav_menu(array('menu' => 'Main Nav Menu')); ?></nav>

<div id="main-content-archive">

<div class="grey-text">Random post</div>

        <?php $query = new WP_Query( array ( 'orderby' => 'rand', 'posts_per_page' => '1' ) );?>

        <?php if (have_posts()) : while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
        echo '<li>';
        the_title();
        echo '</li>';
        ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

<?php else : ?>

    <h2>Not Found</h2>

<?php endif; ?> 

</div>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Answer 1

I found this post which gave me desired results…

Here’s a solution copy/pasted from the wpbeginner blog post. No copyright infringement intended.

Just add the following code to the functions.php file:

add_action('init','random_add_rewrite');
function random_add_rewrite() {
   global $wp;
   $wp->add_query_var('random');
   add_rewrite_rule('random/?$', 'index.php?random=1', 'top');
}

add_action('template_redirect','random_template');
function random_template() {
   if (get_query_var('random') == 1) {
           $posts = get_posts('post_type=post&orderby=rand&numberposts=1');
           foreach($posts as $post) {
                   $link = get_permalink($post);
           }
           wp_redirect($link,307);
           exit;
   }
}

Use mydomain.com/random/ as your href for your button that leads to the random post.

Thanks everyone who contributed for your help…

Cheers!