Add Random Posts Widget to Blogger

The Random Posts widget or gadget for Blogger will display random posts added to your blog that, due to the natural structure of blogs, could get lost easily deep in your archives. Most of the time, when new people join your site, they rarely bother going back to find one of your good posts.

One of the easiest way to give a new life to your older posts is to display them in a random order in the sidebar. So, in this tutorial, I will show you how to add a random posts gadget in a Blogger blog. The advantages of this widget is that it can be easily customized and is loading pretty fast, besides displaying the thumbnails of your posts and how many comments they have received.

Do you want to add it? Just follow these steps below:

How to add Random Posts Widget to Blogger

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account > go to 'Layout', click on the 'Add a Gadget' link:

Step 2. Add a new 'HTML/JavaScript' gadget

Step 3. Paste the following code inside the empty box:

<style>
#random-posts img{float:left;margin-right:10px;
width:65px;height:65px;background-color: #F5F5F5;padding: 3px;}
ul#random-posts {list-style-type: none;}
#random-posts li {margin-bottom: 10px;}
.random-summary {display: block;}
</style>

<ul id='random-posts'>
<script type='text/javaScript'>
var rdp_numposts=5;
var rdp_snippet_length=60;
var rdp_info='yes';
rdp_info2='no';
var rdp_comment='Comments';
var rdp_disable='Comments Disabled';
var rdp_current=[];var rdp_total_posts=0;var rdp_current=new Array(rdp_numposts);function totalposts(json){rdp_total_posts=json.feed.openSearch$totalResults.$t}document.write('<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&max-results=0&callback=totalposts\"><\/script>');function getvalue(){for(var i=0;i<rdp_numposts;i++){var found=false;var rndValue=get_random();for(var j=0;j<rdp_current.length;j++){if(rdp_current[j]==rndValue){found=true;break}};if(found){i--}else{rdp_current[i]=rndValue}}};function get_random(){var ranNum=1+Math.round(Math.random()*(rdp_total_posts-1));return ranNum};
</script>
<script type='text/javaScript'>
function random_posts(json){for(var i=0;i<rdp_numposts;i++){var entry=json.feed.entry[i];var rdp_posttitle=entry.title.$t;if('content'in entry){var rdp_get_snippet=entry.content.$t}else{if('summary'in entry){var rdp_get_snippet=entry.summary.$t}else{var rdp_get_snippet="";}};rdp_get_snippet=rdp_get_snippet.replace(/<[^>]*>/g,"");if(rdp_get_snippet.length<rdp_snippet_length){var rdp_snippet=rdp_get_snippet}else{rdp_get_snippet=rdp_get_snippet.substring(0,rdp_snippet_length);var space=rdp_get_snippet.lastIndexOf(" ");rdp_snippet=rdp_get_snippet.substring(0,space)+"";};for(var j=0;j<entry.link.length;j++){if('thr$total'in entry){var rdp_commentsNum=entry.thr$total.$t+' '+rdp_comment}else{rdp_commentsNum=rdp_disable};if(entry.link[j].rel=='alternate'){var rdp_posturl=entry.link[j].href;var rdp_postdate=entry.published.$t;if('media$thumbnail'in entry){var rdp_thumb=entry.media$thumbnail.url}else{rdp_thumb="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6YRzywRRO2HShf-M8_P3CWg4nLcfgkSbmuocN4Lx4jjbzfR2s-I93UjQLPcnUs9rHRmnKcCNzVwFikhriZHZ_BuDr0NI6JzPAN3UXXVhgyzgshYaSg4jSp3hhKk-CbxP1_HgPF2NevFg/s1600/no_thumb.png"}}};document.write('<li>');document.write('<img alt="'+rdp_posttitle+'" src="'+rdp_thumb+'"/>');document.write('<div><a href="'+rdp_posturl+'" title="'+rdp_snippet+'">'+rdp_posttitle+'</a></div>');if(rdp_info=='yes'){document.write('<span>'+rdp_postdate.substring(8,10)+'/'+rdp_postdate.substring(5,7)+'/'+rdp_postdate.substring(0,4)+' - '+rdp_commentsNum)+'</span>'}
if(rdp_info2=='yes'){document.write('<span class="random-summary">'+rdp_snippet)+'</span>'}
document.write('<div style="clear:both"></div></li>')}};getvalue();for(var i=0;i<rdp_numposts;i++){document.write('<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&start-index='+rdp_current[i]+'&max-results=1&callback=random_posts\"><\/script>')};
</script>
</ul>
<div style="font-size: 10px; float: right;">Get this <a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2012/03/add-random-posts-widget-to-blogger.html" rel="nofollow">Random Posts Widget</a></div>

Customize the Random Posts Widget

If you want to show more than 5 posts, replace the 5 parameter.
To make the thumbnails bigger, change the pixels in red from width:65px;height:65px;
To add the text snippets, change the no to yes in this line:

rdp_info2='no';

To add more characters to the snippets, change the 60 parameter.
If you want to hide the post dates and comments, change yes to no, in this line:

var rdp_info='yes';

Step 4. Press Save and that's it! Now you can enjoy this random posts widget on your Blogger blog.