Using a custom field as excerpt

Also is it possible to use the excerpt from an excerpt field when the_project either hasn’t been utilised or isn’t on another post type?
In other words:
Post types I have =
Portfolio items – use the_project custom field as excerpt
Sites – use the_project custom field as excerpt
Posts – doesn’t have the the_project custom field so use excerpt field for the excerpt.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Nikko

Basically, it works for the posts element, see – https://owe.brother.design/sites/oxpens-phase-1/ under heading Other development opportunities when the post element is calling a custom post and using the_project as an excerpt. But for some reason not in the second post element on the same page under the heading Related news and updates – this one uses a post element calling standard posts from the blog and using a standard excerpt field (doesn’t shorten the excerpt to 50 words or add [more info].

Also, it doesn’t work at all for portfolio grids, see – https://owe.brother.design/project-item/oxford-station-western-side/ under heading Other projects.

Code added as Code snippet

Any thoughts?

One other thing – I created this test page. This uses blog posts element throughout (no portfolio grids). https://owe.brother.design/excerpt-test/

Blog post element 1 – calls standard posts and uses the standard excerpt field. This element is not working as I’d like because it does not shorten the excerpt or add ‘… Read more >’.
Blog post element 2 – calls portfolio posts and uses the_project custom field as excerpt.

You’ll also notice that when the excerpt is longer than 50 words and the excerpt is edited then the ‘… Read more’ works correctly by being inserted after the 50th word.

If excerpt is shorter than 50 words then the ‘… Read more’ is after a line break which is inconsistent and not as desired. Also when the excerpt is shorter than 50 words it’s displaying the full excerpt and therefore the ‘…’ is not actually necessary or grammatically accurate. Can we remove the ‘…’ under those parameters and display the ‘Read more’ directly after the last word of the excerpt?

Does that makes sense? And thanks in advance.

Dominic

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by domchocolate.

Thanks, Nikko

That CSS addressed the problem on the read more issue – see second blog post element on page https://owe.brother.design/excerpt-test/. This element displays portfolio or custom posts that use the_project custom field as the excerpt.

The first blog post element on the page https://owe.brother.design/excerpt-test/ – uses the element to pull in standard posts and uses the standard excerpt field on these posts. You can see that the excerpt is neither shortened to 50 words nor has the read more.

Any thoughts how to fix it in that scenario?

OK – I got this working (almost). So I removed the copy from the excerpt field on the standard post and then the excerpt got pulled from the content field of the post. Perfect. Except it cuts the excerpt off at 9 words (10 including the ellipses (…) ). Can we get this to do 50 words the same as when we use the_project custom field as excerpt?

Example using standard posts: https://owe.brother.design/updates-and-events/

Example using custom post and the_project custom field: https://owe.brother.design/projects/

Thanks in advance

Dominic

Thanks, Nikko – Brilliant! That works! One tiny issue…

On the custom posts that use the custom field (the_project) as an excerpt there is one set of ellipses (…) before read more link. eg. https://owe.brother.design/projects/

On the standard posts that use the content as the excerpt there are two sets of ellipses (.……) before read more link. eg. https://owe.brother.design/updates-and-events/

Any ideas on how we fix that so we only get one set on each?

Thanks in advance

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by domchocolate.

Any luck? Anyone? I’m rather keen to fix this because I have a client waiting for this particular request. Sorry to be a pain.

Thanks, @guenni007 – that didn’t work I’m afraid.

But I did find the solution in the end. For those interested it’s:

function string_limit_words( $string, $word_limit )
{
    $words = explode( ' ', $string, ( $word_limit + 1 ) );

    if ( count( $words ) > $word_limit )
    {
        array_pop( $words );
    }

    return implode( ' ', $words );
}

function modify_excerpt( $excerpt, $entry )
{
    $label   = "Read more";
    $limit   = 50;
    $excerpt = string_limit_words( $excerpt, $limit ) . '… ';
    $excerpt .= '<a href="' . get_permalink( $entry->ID ) . '"><span class="avia_iconbox_title">' . $label . '<span class="more-link-arrow"></span></span></a>';

    return $excerpt;
}

// Use custom excerpt for Blogposts for grid layout
add_filter( "avf_post_slider_entry_excerpt", function ( $excerpt, $prepare_excerpt, $permalink, $entry, $class ) {
    $custom_excerpt = get_field( 'the_project', $entry->ID );

    if ( $custom_excerpt )
    {
        $excerpt = $custom_excerpt;
    }

    return modify_excerpt( $excerpt, $entry );
}, 10, 5 );

// Use custom excerpt for Blogposts in all layout except grid
add_filter( 'get_the_excerpt', function ( $excerpt, $entry ) {
    $custom_excerpt = get_field( 'the_project', $entry->ID );

    if ( $custom_excerpt )
    {
        $excerpt = $custom_excerpt;
    }

    return modify_excerpt( $excerpt, $entry );
}, 10, 2 );

Thanks again everyone for all your help.

Dominic