Search Utility

Hi nmsinc,

You can limit the number of words displayed using something like the maxwords function described in my CMSB Cookbook http://www.thecmsbcookbook.com.

Here's a recipe that might help.

Best,

Jerry Kornbluth

LIMITING THE NUMBER OF WORDS SHOWN IN A PAGE
If you use the character limiting function that’s exactly what you’ll get, and words can be cut off. But if you want to limit the word count, Dave shares his usual uncanny wisdom:

Put this code at the top of your page, or before you want to invoke the word limiting function:

<?PHP
function maxWords($textOrHtml, $maxWords) {
$text = strip_tags($textOrHtml);
$words = preg_split("/\s+/", $text, $maxWords+1);
if (count($words) > $maxWords) { unset($words[$maxWords]); }
$output = join(' ', $words);

return $output;
}
?>

Then put this code where you want the words limited (to 5 words):

<?PHP echo maxWords($record['content'], 5);
?>
If you want to add ...more and a link, use something like this:

<?PHP echo maxWords($record['content'], 5);
?>...<a href="<?php echo $record['_link']; ?>”>Read More</a>

or

<?PHP echo maxWords($record['content'], 5);
?>...<a class="read-more" href="http://www.your_site.com/your_detail_page.php?<?php echo $record['num'] ?>">(Read More)</a>
To allow certain tags like <br> or <p> to appear in your text, change the strip_tags code:

$text = strip_tags($textOrHtml);

to

$text = strip_tags($textOrHtml, '<br >');

The function is pretty literal, but it seems to automatically include the closing tag, so include all the flavors of the tags you want to include, like this:

$text = strip_tags($textOrHtml, '<br /><br/><br><p>');


If you’re using a WYSIWYG Editor and are losing some formatting when using the MaxWord function, Jason Sauchuk of Interactive Tools suggests using this version of the function instead:

<?PHP
function maxWords($textOrHtml, $maxWords) {
$text=str_replace("<p>","*P*",$textOrHtml);
$text= str_replace("</p>","*/P*",$text);
$text = strip_tags($text);
$words = preg_split("/\s+/", $text, $maxWords+1);
if (count($words) > $maxWords) { unset($words[$maxWords]); }
$output = join(' ', $words);
$output=str_replace("*P*","<p>",$output);
$output=str_replace("*/P*","</p>",$output);
$output.="</p>";

return $output;
}
?>