RandomRSS is a WordPress Plugin that helps webmasters with content syndication. It creates a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed featuring up to 10 posts selected at random with optional filtering constraints.
Filtering constraints allow users to filter the content of their RandomRSS feed by category, tag, or date range using query strings. They are also given the option to change the pubDate field from the date the post was originally published to the current date and time.
To view your RandomRSS feed simply load the URL beginning with your site’s root directory followed by /wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php into your browser. To filter by category simply append “?category=category_name” to that URL. To filter by tag simply append “?tag=tag” to the URL. If you want to filter by category and tag simply append both to the URL like so “?category=category_name&tag=tag”. To filter by date range simply append the necessary query strings to specify the earliest date, latest date, or both in the right format (YYYY-MM-DD). To set the earliest date append “?datemin=YYYY-MM-DD” or to set the latest date append “?datemax=YYYY-MM-DD” and to do both append “?datemin=YYYY-MM-DD&datemax=YYYY-MM-DD.” You can also combine any combination of category, tag, minimum date, and maximum date (ex: for items categorized as “automotive” tagged “antifreeze” between the dates of May 31, 2015 and June 18, 2017 your URL should look something like “/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?category=automotive&tag=antifreeze&datemin=2015-05-31&datemax=2017-06-17”).
To change the pubDate to the current date/time simply append “?pubdate=new” to the URL. If the URL already has a different query string you will need to append it like this “&pubdate=new”.
Remember that you only need to add a question mark to the beginning of the first query string and to use the & character for those that follow.
The feed output should be something like what you see at https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php. As of this writing we don’t have many posts on our site, but you should notice that the ones in that feed are in random order. We only have one category at the moment, so you won’t see a difference at https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?category=announcements, but we do have a variety of tags, so the feed at https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?category=announcements&tag=randomrss you will notice the filtered results are only posts about RandomRSS. If you want to limit posts to those with a publication date after a specific date then you should end up with something like https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?datemin=2022-05-01 and for before a specific date something like https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?datemax=2022-05-01 or for both something like https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?datemin=2021-07-31&datemax=2022-05-15. If you want to combine all of the options for posts with a specific category, tag, and date range your URL should look something like https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?category=announcements&tag=randomrss&datemin=2021-07-04&datemax=2022-06-15. Then if you want to change the pubDate fields to the current date/time simply append the new pubDate string like this https://paydelete.com/wp-content/plugins/randomrss/feed.php?category=announcements&tag=randomrss&datemin=2021-07-04&datemax=2022-06-15&pubdate=new and you will notice that the pubDate is today.
Installation
- Upload
randomrss.zipby logging into your WordPress site’s admin section “/wp-admin/” and selecting the add new plugin option “wp-admin/plugin-install.php” before typing “randomrss” without quotes into the search box to install from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory or uploading it yourself. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I syndicate RSS feed content?
Download an auto-blogging plugin that supports RSS aggregation. Then you will simply need to create a new RSS campaign using the URL of your RandomRSS feeds.
We recommend WP-Automatic from Code Canyon. WP-Automatic costs $30 per license and each license allows you to use it on one domain. We like WP-Automatic because it is the cheapest auto-blogging plugin with premium features that you have to pay other auto-blogging plugins much more for otherwise.
What if I don’t want to pay for an auto-blogging plugin?
Then we recommend WPeMatico from etruel. WPeMatico has all you need to setup multiple campaigns for free and it also has premium add-ons available should you need them.
What About Duplicate Content?
WP Automatic, WPeMatico, and other auto-blogging plugins have duplicate content protection features that should keep you from ending up with duplicate posts. If you’re using WP Automatic we recommend checking the box in each campaign’s options that says “Skip the post if there is there is already a published one with same title in the database.” If you’re using WPeMatico we recommend not changing the default duplicate content protection settings.
Future Additions
There are two major future releases that we have planned. The first will add the ability to filter feed results using keywords and phrases. That will be the last feature of version 1. We hope to have keyword filtering added later this year. The next release will be version 2.0. Version 2.0 will include a user interface to help people generate their own feed URLs by selecting inputs from controls on the page. We hope to have version 2.0 finished sometime next year.
Download RandomRSS
You can download RandomRSS from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory or simply login to your WordPress site, select Plugins, Add New, and search for RandomRSS. You can also download it directly from our site below: