KJ Coop

<p>This plugin will display a given number of random blogroll categories to show.<br />
It will show all the links in those categories.</p>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<p>Unless you’ve changed some defaults, your blogroll is most likely displayed by<br />
the following line of code in wp-content/themes/[your theme]/sidebar.php:
    </p>
<p>The simplest way to display a random category is just by replacing that line<br />
with a call to blogroll_random_category:
    </p>
<p>If you want to include a link to the whole blogroll, you can create a page in<br />
wordpress using the links template. Note the permalink. If you’ve already got a<br />
list of your pages in the sidebar, you’re in business. Otherwise you can add one<br />
with the following line of code:<br />
    <a href="[your permalink]" rel="nofollow ugc">See complete blogroll</a></p>
<p>If your blogroll is not set to be categorized, or if there is only one category,<br />
it will return the whole thing untouched.</p>
<h3>Advanced</h3>
<h3>Showing multiple categories</h3>
<p>If you want multiple categories returned, you can send the function that number.<br />
For example:</p>
<p>will return 5 randomized categories. If you only have 4 categories, it will<br />
return all of them in a random order.</p>
<h3>Retaining arguments sent to wp_list_bookmarks</h3>
<p>If you’re sending arguments to wp_list_bookmarks, you can send those to<br />
blogroll_random_category and it will pass them along to wp_list bookmarks. In<br />
this example, we’re showing all categories except #23:
    </p>
<p>The change below will show five random categories, none of which will be #23. If<br />
you only have four categories, this will return the three that are not #23:
    </p>
<h3>To show one category all the time and the rest randomize the rest</h3>
<p>In the sidebar you can explicitly call that category. When only one category is<br />
selected, this plugin knows to return it as it is. Any subsequent calls to<br />
blogroll_random_category ought to be instructed to exclude it in order to avoid<br />
the possibility that it happens to be randomly selected:</p>
<pre><code><?php wp_list_bookmarks('category=23'); ?>
<?php blogroll_random_category(5, 'exclude_category=23'); ?><h3>1.0</h3>* The first version.<h3>1.5</h3>* Whereas this plugin previously altered the behavior of wp_list_bookmarks in a
</code></pre>
<p>way that made it impossible to see the whole blogroll. Now it uses a separate<br />
  function call so that in some instances you can see random categories, but in<br />
  others you can see the whole blogroll.<br />
* Now possible to return multiple random categories without separate function<br />
  calls, thus eliminiating the possibility that two of the random categories<br />
  will be the same.</p>
<h3>1.5.1</h3>
<ul>
<li>The leading closing li tag was not actually getting trimmed off due to<br />
bad copying and pasting. That has been resolved.</li>
</ul>
<h3>A personal request</h3>
<p>If you use/enjoy this plugin, I’d love to hear from you. You’re under no<br />
obligation, but I’d enjoy knowing that somebody out there is enjoying my work.<br />
Promptly returning e-mail is not my strong suit, so you may never get the<br />
courtesy of a reply, but you can rest assured that I appreciated your effort.</p>
<p>I can be reached at kj@kjcoop.com.</p>


Random Blogroll Category

This plug in will select one or more random blogroll categories to show.

Crazy Girl

<p>This WordPress Widget allows you to display the recent posts of your blogroll links via RSS Feeds as a sidebar widget.<br />
The Plugin works without Javascript and without AJAX. It uses the WordPress standard links database and honors the<br />
visible and target settings as defined for each link (private links are not shown, links are displayed in the same or<br />
in a new window as specified). The Plugin is easy to install, the Widget is simple to use and highly customizable.<br />
You can simply switch on / off, select or type in the various configurations and settings.</p>
<p>You can configure this Widget in the WordPress Appearance Widgets SubPanel as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>add an own title to the sidebar widget</li>
<li>define how many items you want to display </li>
<li>choose the link category of the items (all links or one of your link categories)</li>
<li>select the item order (link name ascending, link name descending, link id ascending, link id descending, random order)</li>
<li>show the images entered to the respective links or let the plugin generate website thumbnails (via m-software.de) – NOT RECOMMENDED, as this service does not work properly anymore!</li>
<li>define the image size</li>
<li>show blogroll links</li>
<li>add the ‘rel=nofollow’ attribute to the blogroll links</li>
<li>define how many feed post links you want to display</li>
<li>choose if you want to shorten the feed post link text and define the length in characters</li>
<li>add the ‘rel=nofollow’ attribute to the feed post links</li>
<li>show feed post excerpts</li>
<li>define how many characters of the feed post excerpt you want to display</li>
</ul>
<p>Before using the Blogroll Widget with RSS Feeds make sure, that you have entered the right RSS Addresses to your links in the Links<br />
Subpanel. Otherwise this Plugin will not work correctly. No item is shown when no RSS Address is entered! With this you<br />
have a further possibility to configure the Widget output. When you do not enter a RSS Address to a link, it will not be<br />
displayed in the Widget.</p>
<p>Alternative to the WordPress Appearance Widgets SubPanel you can add and configure the Blogroll Widget with RSS Feeds directly<br />
in your theme file (e.g. sidebar.php). For details please see the installation tab.</p>
<p><strong>Blogroll Widget with RSS Feeds requires WordPress Version 2.8 or higher</strong></p>
<h4>Available Languages</h4>
<ul>
<li>German</li>
<li>English</li>
<li>Italian – Thanks to talksina</li>
<li>French – Thanks to <a href="http://maitremo.fr/" title="Maître Mô" rel="nofollow ugc">Maître Mô</a></li>
<li>Belorussian – Thanks to <a href="http://pc.de/" title="Marcis G." rel="nofollow ugc">Marcis G.</a></li>
<li>Bulgarian – Thanks to <a href="http://webhostinggeeks.com/" title="Web Geek" rel="nofollow ugc">Web Geek</a></li>
</ul>


Random Blogroll Category vs Blogroll Widget with RSS Feeds