Select a random post from a specific category?

Question

I'm very new to word press having only installed it on the weekend, I'm fine with HTML & CSS but PHP & Wordpress is alien to me.

I'm trying to display a post from a specific category that changes every day, i've searched everywhere and found the below code whihc works to a point.

I just cant seem to get it to choose from a category number?

Any help or explanation would be much appreciated.

    <?php
if ( false === ( $totd_trans_post_id = get_transient( 'totd_trans_post_id' ) ) ) {
     $args = array('numberposts' => 1, 'orderby' => 'rand');
     $totd = get_posts($args);
     $midnight = strtotime('midnight +1 day');
     $timenow = time();
     $timetillmidnight = $midnight - $timenow;
     echo $midnight;
     echo ",".$timenow;
     set_transient('totd_trans_post_id', $totd[0]->ID, $timetillmidnight);
} else {
    $args = array('post__in' => array($totd_trans_post_id));
    $totd = get_posts($args);
}

foreach( $totd as $post ) : setup_postdata($post); ?>
    <div>
        <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
        <?php the_content(); ?>
    </div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

EDIT Thanks for the suggestions but nothing seems to be working with my existing code, it still continues to pick a completey random post from all categories.

Answer 1

You can change your get_posts $args

Example:

$args = array(
    'orderby' => 'rand',
    'category_name' => 'your_category',
    'showposts' => 1
);

Answer 2

Just use WP_Query() to generate your custom query, category parameters.

<?php
$category_query_args = array(
    'orderby' => 'rand',
    'category_name' => 'your_category'
);

$category_query = new WP_Query( $category_query_args );
?>

Note: you could also pass the category slug to the query, via category_name, instead of cat.

And just forward your loop.

<?php
if ( $category_query->have_posts() ) : while $category_query->have_posts() : $category_query->the_post();
// Loop output goes here
endwhile; endif;
?>

Hope This will help you.

Answer 3

You can use this following code snippet in any theme file or you can also create a new page template. Before using this code, don’t forget to replace category IDs that you want to fetch post from.

<?php

// display random post from specific categories

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'cat' => '2, 6, 17, 38', // category IDs
    'orderby' => 'rand',
    'posts_per_page' => '1', // get 1 post only
    'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1,
);

$my_query = new WP_Query( $args );

// the loop
if ( $my_query->have_posts() ) :

    while ( $my_query->have_posts() ) : $my_query->the_post();

        // display article
        get_template_part( 'content', 'featured' );

    endwhile;

endif;

wp_reset_postdata();

?>