random discussion url (surprise me url)

HarMan

how to make a redirect url /random to /d/1234 or /d/2345 or something else that can redirect discussion urls randomly and not redirect to non-existent discussions (page 404)

I've tried to make like this

if (!empty($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) && strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/random') !== false) {
    exit(header("Location: https://" . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . "/d/" . random_int(1, 2500) . "", true, 302));
}

but the problem is it can't filter non existent discussion (404)

anyone can help?

clarkwinkelmann

HarMan you will need to write your code using the Flarum PHP extension API, and perform a database query for discussions while applying the visibility scopes so that only discussions that are visible to the current user can be picked.

I don't have a full code example, but you'll probably need a forum middleware or controller to handle the actual request, extract the current actor and serve the redirect (ideally as a PSR/Laminas response object so Flarum can shutdown correctly), then in the middle use the discussion repository to obtain a query builder with the visibility scopes applied with the actor as parameter, then you might be able to simply use the inRandomOrder()->first() eloquent query builder methods to pick one at random. And finally if you want your extension to work even with custom slug drivers or customized path prefixes, you should use the discussion slugger and UrlGenerator to build the URL to the discussion to be used in the redirect.