pelican-random-article 0.2.1

A Pelican plugin that generates a /random page redirecting visitors to a random article.

pelican-random-article

pelican-random-article is a Pelican plugin that automatically generates a /random page.
Visiting /random instantly redirects the reader to a randomly chosen article — just like wiwi.blog/random.

Features

• Generates a static random/index.html page at build time.
• Picks a random article client-side using JavaScript — no server required.
• Works with any Pelican theme; no template changes needed.
• Configurable output path via pelicanconf.py.

Installation

pip install pelican-random-article

Or with uv:

uv add pelican-random-article

Usage

1. Enable the plugin in pelicanconf.py

PLUGINS = [
    # ... your other plugins ...
    "pelican.plugins.random_article",
]

2. (Optional) Add a link in your navigation

Point any link to /random (or wherever RANDOM_ARTICLE_SAVE_AS points):

<a href="{{ SITEURL }}/random/">Random</a>

3. Build your site

pelican content

The plugin will write output/random/index.html automatically.

Configuration

Add these to pelicanconf.py to customise the output path:

# Default values shown below
RANDOM_ARTICLE_SAVE_AS = "random/index.html"

Note: RANDOM_ARTICLE_URL is not consumed by the plugin itself —
it is only needed if you want Pelican's link helpers to resolve /random.
Set it to match RANDOM_ARTICLE_SAVE_AS:

RANDOM_ARTICLE_URL = "random/"
RANDOM_ARTICLE_SAVE_AS = "random/index.html"

How it works

At build time the plugin:

1. Connects to Pelican's article_generator_finalized signal.
2. Collects all published article URLs.
3. Renders a tiny HTML page that contains the full URL list as a JSON array.
4. On page load, JavaScript picks a random entry and calls window.location.href.

Because the redirect happens client-side, the page is completely static and
requires no server-side logic.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.10
• Pelican >= 4.5
• Jinja2 (bundled with Pelican)

License

MIT License © Wei Lee