Truncate WordPress post content without losing HTML formatting - php

Question

I'm working on a WordPress theme where I need to truncate the post at a certain number of words. I understand how to use the_excerpt(), however this strips out all the paragraph breaks, links, etc. which is NOT the desired effect. I tried using jQuery Succinct and applying that to the_content() -- that maintained the formatting, but it cut off in the middle of a paragraph so I had an open <p> that then broke the rest of the layout. The client does not want to use the option to manually insert a "more" tag into the post.
Is there a way I can do this either via PHP or jQuery?

Answer 1

You have to create your own excerpt function. I have written one that keeps all html tags in tact and also cut the excerpt at the end of a sentence just after the chosen amount of words.
You need to remove the original excerpt filter first and add your new one. Add this to your functions.php
remove_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt');
add_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'pietergoosen_custom_wp_trim_excerpt');
Now add this below
function pietergoosen_custom_wp_trim_excerpt($pietergoosen_excerpt) {
global $post;
$raw_excerpt = $pietergoosen_excerpt;
if ( '' == $pietergoosen_excerpt ) {
$pietergoosen_excerpt = get_the_content('');
$pietergoosen_excerpt = strip_shortcodes( $pietergoosen_excerpt );
$pietergoosen_excerpt = apply_filters('the_content', $pietergoosen_excerpt);
$pietergoosen_excerpt = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $pietergoosen_excerpt);
//Set the excerpt word count and only break after sentence is complete.
$excerpt_word_count = 75;
$excerpt_length = apply_filters('excerpt_length', $excerpt_word_count);
$tokens = array();
$excerptOutput = '';
$count = 0;
// Divide the string into tokens; HTML tags, or words, followed by any whitespace
preg_match_all('/(<[^>]+>|[^<>\s]+)\s*/u', $pietergoosen_excerpt, $tokens);
foreach ($tokens[0] as $token) {
if ($count >= $excerpt_word_count && preg_match('/[\?\.\!]\s*$/uS', $token)) {
// Limit reached, continue until ? . or ! occur at the end
$excerptOutput .= trim($token);
break;
}
// Add words to complete sentence
$count++;
// Append what's left of the token
$excerptOutput .= $token;
}
$pietergoosen_excerpt = trim(force_balance_tags($excerptOutput));
$excerpt_end = ' ' . ' » ' . sprintf(__( 'Read more about: %s »', 'pietergoosen' ), get_the_title()) . '';
$excerpt_more = apply_filters('excerpt_more', ' ' . $excerpt_end);
$pos = strrpos($pietergoosen_excerpt, '</');
if ($pos !== false)
// Inside last HTML tag
$pietergoosen_excerpt = substr_replace($pietergoosen_excerpt, $excerpt_end, $pos, 0);
else
// After the content
$pietergoosen_excerpt .= $excerpt_end;
return $pietergoosen_excerpt;
}
return apply_filters('pietergoosen_custom_wp_trim_excerpt', $pietergoosen_excerpt, $raw_excerpt);
}