How-To Enable Random News Posts on vBAdvanced

I searched and didn't see this here, apologies if it's in the wrong spot. With so many of us running vBA, I believe it's appropriate.

This is for vBA 2.x running on 3.5.3, untested otherwise.

To enable random news posts from your news forum:

Edit: news.php

Find:


ORDER BY " . iif($mod_options['portal_news_sticky'], 'sticky DESC,') . iif($mod_options['portal_news_orderby'] == 'postdateline', 'dateline', $mod_options['portal_news_orderby']) . " $mod_options[portal_news_direction]

Replace With:
ORDER BY RAND()

Save and you're done. Demo if you must, simply visit my website in my sig and refresh the page a few times.

[Lea Verou]

I have 3 blocks of news and I would like that in only one of them. However they all use the same news.php. Can you think of a way to accomplish this? :)

[Lizard King]

I have 3 blocks of news and I would like that in only one of them. However they all use the same news.php. Can you think of a way to accomplish this? :)

Rename the news.php to randomnews.php upload it to your modules direntory and add a new module using randomnews.php that may solve your problem ;)

[Lea Verou]

Oh yes, correct... Thanks...

[G_Man]

Works a trick, but I have a question.

It doesn't actually select a random post for me, but rather the first post of a random thread.

Have I done something wrong, or is there a way to change it further so it selects an actual random post???


Thanks for this, BTW - It is very helpful.