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 randomposts_number = 5;
var randomposts_chars = 60;
var randomposts_details = 'yes';
randomposts_details2 = 'no';
var randomposts_comments = 'Comments';
var randomposts_commentsd = 'Comments Disabled';
var randomposts_current = [];
var total_randomposts = 0;
var randomposts_current = new Array(randomposts_number);

function randomposts(json) {
    total_randomposts = json.feed.openSearch$totalResults.$t
}
document.write('<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&max-results=0&callback=randomposts\"><\/script>');

function getvalue() {
    for (var i = 0; i < randomposts_number; i++) {
        var found = false;
        var rndValue = get_random();
        for (var j = 0; j < randomposts_current.length; j++) {
            if (randomposts_current[j] == rndValue) {
                found = true;
                break
            }
        };
        if (found) {
            i--
        } else {
            randomposts_current[i] = rndValue
        }
    }
};

function get_random() {
    var ranNum = 1 + Math.round(Math.random() * (total_randomposts - 1));
    return ranNum
};
</script>
<script type='text/javaScript'>
function random_posts(json) {
    for (var i = 0; i < randomposts_number; i++) {
        var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
        var randompoststitle = entry.title.$t;
        if ('content' in entry) {
            var randompostsnippet = entry.content.$t
        } else {
            if ('summary' in entry) {
                var randompostsnippet = entry.summary.$t
            } else {
                var randompostsnippet = "";
            }
        };
        randompostsnippet = randompostsnippet.replace(/<[^>]*>/g, "");
        if (randompostsnippet.length < randomposts_chars) {
            var randomposts_snippet = randompostsnippet
        } else {
            randompostsnippet = randompostsnippet.substring(0, randomposts_chars);
            var whitespace = randompostsnippet.lastIndexOf(" ");
            randomposts_snippet = randompostsnippet.substring(0, whitespace) + "&#133;";
        };
        for (var j = 0; j < entry.link.length; j++) {
            if ('thr$total' in entry) {
                var randomposts_commentsnum = entry.thr$total.$t + ' ' + randomposts_comments
            } else {
                randomposts_commentsnum = randomposts_commentsd
            }; if (entry.link[j].rel == 'alternate') {
                var randompostsurl = entry.link[j].href;
                var randomposts_date = entry.published.$t;
                if ('media$thumbnail' in entry) {
                    var randompoststhumb = entry.media$thumbnail.url
                } else {
                    randompoststhumb = "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfIPWiTjw3pjlN_J6HCDLBms7cyo5zd0F5JrgSWC35CMyQ7DPSMZyMrfQaX1YSYKx3S0kccjTYxzzAUBV5cHiZg7gZBpz0-ymCVdSHh2p3DLxgbaDrWNcdlWp7FK9aOmYCthir-W00-w/s1600/no_thumb.png"
                }
            }
        };
        document.write('<li>');
        document.write('<img alt="' + randompoststitle + '" src="' + randompoststhumb + '"/>');
        document.write('<div><a href="' + randompostsurl + '" rel="nofollow">' + randompoststitle + '</a></div>');
        if (randomposts_details == 'yes') {
            document.write('<span>' + randomposts_date.substring(8, 10) + '.' + randomposts_date.substring(5, 7) + '.' + randomposts_date.substring(0, 4) + ' - ' + randomposts_commentsnum) + '</span>'
        }
        if (randomposts_details2 == 'yes') {
            document.write('<span class="random-summary">' + randomposts_snippet) + '</span>'
        }
        document.write('<div style="clear:both"></div></li>')
    }
};
getvalue();
for (var i = 0; i < randomposts_number; i++) {
    document.write('<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&start-index=' + randomposts_current[i] + '&max-results=1&callback=random_posts\"><\/script>')
};
</script>
</ul>
<div style="font-size: 10px; float: right;"><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; and height:65px;
To add the text snippets, change the no to yes in this line:

randomposts_details2='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 randomposts_details='yes';

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