Grav Random Plugin

Random is a Grav Plugin which allows a random article to load based on its taxonomy filters.

Installation

Installing the Random plugin can be done in one of two ways. Our GPM (Grav Package Manager) installation method enables you to quickly and easily install the plugin with a simple terminal command, while the manual method enables you to do so via a zip file.

GPM Installation (Preferred)

The simplest way to install this plugin is via the Grav Package Manager (GPM) through your system's Terminal (also called the command line). From the root of your Grav install type:

bin/gpm install random

This will install the Random plugin into your /user/plugins directory within Grav. Its files can be found under /your/site/grav/user/plugins/random.

Manual Installation

To install this plugin, just download the zip version of this repository and unzip it under /your/site/grav/user/plugins. Then, rename the folder to random. You can find these files either on GitHub or via GetGrav.org.

You should now have all the plugin files under

/your/site/grav/user/plugins/random

NOTE: This plugin is a modular component for Grav which requires Grav, the Error and Problems plugins, and a theme to be installed in order to operate.

Usage

Random creates a route that you define. Based on the taxonomy filters, it picks a random item.

By default Random looks for all page that are have taxonomy that match those in the plugin's filter settings. For this content to find anything you need to define at least one page with a matching taxonomy. As the default value of the filter is category: blog you must have at least one page with this taxonomy. For example:

---
title: Home
taxonomy:
    category: blog
---

# Grav is Running!
## You have installed **Grav** successfully

Congratulations! You have installed the **Base Grav Package** that provides a **simple page** and the default **antimatter** theme to get you started.

Settings Defaults

route: /random
filters:
    category: blog

Customizing the Settings

To customize the plugin, you first need to create an override config. To do so, create the folder user/config/plugins (if it doesn't exist already) and copy the random.yaml config file in there.

Now you can edit it and tweak it however you prefer.

For further help with the filters settings, please refer to our Taxonomy and Headers documentation.

Creating a "Random Article" Button

In our Blog Skeleton we placed a button in the sidebar that pulls up a random blog post. Here is the code we used in the sidebar.html.twig template file to create this button.

<a class="button" href="{{ base_url_relative }}/random"><i class="fa fa-retweet"></i> I'm Feeling Lucky!</a>

This button forwards the user to /random which is configured as the route for the random plugin. The random.yaml configuration file contains the following:

enabled: true
route: /random
filters: { category: blog}
filter_combinator: and    

Updating

As development for the Random plugin continues, new versions may become available that add additional features and functionality, improve compatibility with newer Grav releases, and generally provide a better user experience. Updating Random is easy, and can be done through Grav's GPM system, as well as manually.

GPM Update (Preferred)

The simplest way to update this plugin is via the Grav Package Manager (GPM). You can do this with this by navigating to the root directory of your Grav install using your system's Terminal (also called command line) and typing the following:

bin/gpm update random

This command will check your Grav install to see if your Random plugin is due for an update. If a newer release is found, you will be asked whether or not you wish to update. To continue, type y and hit enter. The plugin will automatically update and clear Grav's cache.

Manual Update

Manually updating Random is pretty simple. Here is what you will need to do to get this done:

• Delete the your/site/user/plugins/random directory.
• Download the new version of the Random plugin from either GitHub or GetGrav.org.
• Unzip the zip file in your/site/user/plugins and rename the resulting folder to random.
• Clear the Grav cache. The simplest way to do this is by going to the root Grav directory in terminal and typing bin/grav clear-cache.

Note: Any changes you have made to any of the files listed under this directory will also be removed and replaced by the new set. Any files located elsewhere (for example a YAML settings file placed in user/config/plugins) will remain intact.