Randomly add a 'ul' list of images

Question

I'm developing a photo gallery WP site. I would like to add "ul" list of images that are randomly picked from the gallery.

How would I randomly pick a number of images from the media library.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Adding the following to your theme's functions.php file will let you use a shortcode ( [wpse73055-random-images] ) with an optional num parameter (i.e. [wpse73055-random-images num=5] to display 5 random images).

function wpse73055_get_random_images( $atts ) {
    extract( shortcode_atts( array(
        'num' => 10
    ), $atts ) );

    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'attachment',
        'post_mime_type' =>'image',
        'post_status' => 'inherit',
        'posts_per_page' => $num,
        'orderby' => 'rand'
    );
    $images_query = new WP_Query( $args );

    $images = $images_query->posts;

    $output = '<ul>';
    foreach ( $images as $image ) {
        $output .= '<li>' . wp_get_attachment_link( $image->ID ) . '</li>';
    }
    $output .= '</ul>';

    return $output;
}
add_shortcode( 'wpse73055-random-images', 'wpse73055_get_random_images' );

• wp_get_attachment_link
• WP_Query
• add_shortcode