List categories order by Random - php

Question

I'm not good with PHP.
I use "Advanced Categories Widget" to list categories on Sidebar.
I used this plugin because it offers the ability to display images categories.
But I need to order categories by random.
I find this code on the plugin:
function advanced_categories_widget_html( $args = array() ) {
$args = wp_parse_args( $args );
$args['walker'] = new Walker_Advance_Category_Widget;
$output = wp_list_categories( $args );
if ( $output ) return $output;
}
and i Find another code on forum which displays correctly categories by random order:
wp_list_categories
how I can exploit the second code to hack the first code to list my categories with random order?
The PHP file for the plugin: http://codepad.org/a3yU7Xny

Answer 1

Accordion to the documentation on the Advanced Categories Widget plugin you're using -- -- you can specify 'orderby' in your plugin settings. See this screenshot.
You should have a random or rand option in the drop down.
Can't confirm cuz it's a paid plugin.

Answer 2

Just add the "hack" the function in the plugin file :
function advanced_categories_widget_html( $args = array() ) {
$args = wp_parse_args( $args );
$args['walker'] = new Walker_Advance_Category_Widget;
$cats ='';
$categories=get_categories();
$rand_keys = array_rand($categories, 5); // 5 is the number of categories you want
foreach ($rand_keys as $key) {
$cats .= $categories[$key]->term_id .',';
}
$output = wp_list_categories($args.'&include='.$cats);
if ( $output ) return $output;
}
Or by a cleaner way, add in your functions.php file :
function random_advanced_categories_widget_html( $args = array() ) {
$args = wp_parse_args( $args );
$args['walker'] = new Walker_Advance_Category_Widget;
$cats ='';
$categories=get_categories();
$rand_keys = array_rand($categories, 5); // 5 is the number of categories you want
foreach ($rand_keys as $key) {
$cats .= $categories[$key]->term_id .',';
}
$output = wp_list_categories($args.'&include='.$cats);
if ( $output ) return $output;
}