Random testimonial for the widget?

Here’s a hack to get random testimonials in the widget.

In testimonials.php, find

class GCT_Testimonial_Menu_Widget extends WP_Widget {

on line 719, then find

$args = array(
	$term_taxonomy 		=> $term_slug,
	'posts_per_page' 	=> $no,
	'orderby'         	=> 'post_date',
	'order'			=> 'DESC',
	'post_type' 		=> 'testimonial',
	'post_status'     	=> 'publish'
)

below it on line 752.

Replace these two lines

'orderby'         	=> 'post_date',
'order'			=> 'DESC',

with this one

'orderby'         	=> 'rand',

so it looks like this

$args = array(
	$term_taxonomy 		=> $term_slug,
	'posts_per_page' 	=> $no,
	'orderby'         	=> 'rand',
	'post_type' 		=> 'testimonial',
	'post_status'     	=> 'publish'
)

This will select a random set per page view. The next page may show some of the same testimonials.

Hi Chris,

Yes! It worked!! Thank you so much!
And thank you again for this great plugin!

– Erin ??

Any chance of this as a widget option in a future update. It’s a much needed an obvious omission and the above hackery won’t survive the plugin update process.

I suspect one reason developers stop participating in their free plugins is statements like that.

Instead of hacking the plugin, simply use Advanced Text Widget and drop in the shortcode for random testimonials. If the plugin works as you like it and you want to alter the plugin code, just rename it and make the changes. It won’t get updated, if it’s named something else.