random order results across multiple pages

Alas, it is not possible. Combining pagination and random order simply doesn't work. Sorry about that, but there's nothing that can be done there.

Hi Earl,

This is possible if you add an argument in the mysql RAND() function, it is used as the seed value, which produces a repeatable sequence of column values. see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mathematical-functions.html#funct...

So add a seed like the snippet underneath (views 2 implementation) and it works fine.

I'm currently working on a new handler, should I post a patch for views 2 core for a new handler called 'random with seed' or extend the existing one or even create a new module ? A lot of settings appear on the random field like:

- Use the same seed for every user
- Use a random seem per user
- Reset the seed - every day - every hour - never
- Define your own seed: ____

There might even be an option to not cache the page if we're serving pages to anonymous users, which would use a hook_exit I guess and currently doesn't exists in views.module. This probably justifies a new module I guess as I can imagine you don't want this hook in views 2 core.

class views_handler_sort_random extends views_handler_sort {
  function query() {
    global $db_type;
    // Define a seed, currently always the same but this might have a lot of settings ..
    $seed = 3;
    switch ($db_type) {
      case 'mysql':
      case 'mysqli':
        $formula = 'RAND('. $seed .')';
        break;
      case 'pgsql':
        $formula = 'RANDOM('. $seed .')';
        break;
    }
    $this->query->add_orderby(NULL, $formula, $this->options['order'], '_' . $this->field);
  }

  function options_form(&$form, &$form_state) {
    parent::options_form($form, $form_state);
    $form['order']['#access'] = FALSE;
  }
}

Will become a seperate module, look out for views_random_seed in like an hour or so.

Just want to include a link to that module: http://drupal.org/project/views_random_seed