Random Post Plugin – Redirect URL to Post vs Simply Show Hooks

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!

Up until now the way theme and plugin developers find where to hook into with their add_action() and add_filter() functions is either to search through the WordPress code base, or find find a reference to the hook in the codex. What Simply Show Hooks does is give you a simpler way to see these hooks by displaying them in-line on the page that you are on. All that’s left to do then is copy the hook you need, and paste it in to your add_action and add_filter functions like this: add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘my_enqueue_scripts_action’ ); add_filter( ‘the_title’, ‘my_the_title_filter’ ); I made this plugin so I could find WordPress hooks quicker and I use it all the time, so I thought I’d share it and see if it could help others. Enjoy! Please note that in odd cases, due to the nature of actions and filters, the plugin may display a hook in place that disrupts the display of your site – in which case we always display the ‘Hide Hooks’ button so you can switch it back off. This won’t disrupt the look of you site to anyone but you so don’t worry.