How to display random custom html widget within a widget area? - php

Question

I've registered a new widget area in functions.php using
'name' => __( 'Grand angle sous les articles', 'twentyten' ),
'id' => 'grand-angle',
'description' => __( 'Grand angle en bas des articles', 'twentyten' ),
'before_widget' => '<div id="grand-angle">',
'after_widget' => '</div>',
'before_title' => '',
'after_title' => '',
) );
I'm calling this new widget area in a php template like this :
<?php if ( is_active_sidebar( 'grand-angle' ) ) : dynamic_sidebar( 'grand-angle' ); endif; ?>
Inside this new widget area I'm now adding several custom html widgets and I would like to display them randomly. These custom html widgets contain ads (mostly images) and I need to set up a rotation. Any idea how to do that? Thank you very much for your help.

Answer 1

The solution I've found :
add_filter( 'sidebars_widgets', 'custom_randomize_widget_order' );
function custom_randomize_widget_order( $sidebars_widgets ) {
$sidebars = array( 'grand-angle' ); // set the ids of your sidebars whose widgets you want to shuffle
foreach ( $sidebars as $sidebar ) {
if ( isset( $sidebars_widgets[ $sidebar ] ) && ! is_admin() ) {
shuffle( $sidebars_widgets[ $sidebar ] );
// Slice the array:
$sidebars_widgets[ $sidebar ] = array_slice( $sidebars_widgets[ $sidebar ], 0, 1 );
}
}
return $sidebars_widgets;
}