Show 1 random node out of the 5 most recent in views

Question

I would like to create a block on my homepage where I show my visitors the most recent node (of a specific content-type) I've created. The block should load the 5 most recent nodes but only show one of them on page load.

I've managed to show a random product on page load, but the views takes a random node from all my nodes of that content-type. Is there a way I can limit the nodes, where the random block can chose from, to 5?

Answer 1

I wasn't able to get this working within views proper, so I added a subquery instead.

There are three relevant things that need to be set up in your initial view to get this to work:

1. Filter Criteria: Content: Type = 'my content type' (blog post in the attached image)
2. Sort Criteria: Global: Random
3. Pager: Use Pager: Display a specified number of items: 1

As it is, that will get you a view that will pull in 1 random result from among all content of type "my content type".

But the question is asking you to pull in 1 item from the last 5 created posts, not from all posts.

To do that, you need to add an additional where condition. That can be accomplished with this snippet:

/**
 * Implements hook_views_query_alter().
 *
 * Limits results to the most 3 recent blog posts.
 */
function MY_MODULE_views_query_alter(&$view, &$query) {
  if ($view->name == 'MY_VIEW_NAME' && $view->current_display == 'MY_CURRENT_DISPLAY') {
    $query->add_where_expression('AND', "node.created > (SELECT node.created AS created
      FROM
      node node
      WHERE  (type = 'MY_CONTENT_TYPE')
      ORDER BY created DESC
      LIMIT 1 OFFSET 5)");
  }
}

That snippet says: "Find me the creation timestamp of the node that is the fifth-newest. Then filter my final result by nodes with creation timestamps greater than that."

There might be a better way, but this works for me.

Answer 2

I know it's probably too late, but in the 'Pager' section, you can use a pager and 'Display a specified number of items'. You can choose to display 5 items and then in the 'Sort Criteria' section sort by the 'Post Date'.

This way the view will only look at the 5 most recent posts and then randomly choose from one of them.