Wordpress Themes - WP Forum at BFA - BUGFIX: 3.4.9 Excerpt length not working properly?

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- - BUGFIX: 3.4.9 Excerpt length not working properly? (http://forum.bytesforall.com/showthread.php?t=7149)

BUGFIX: 3.4.9 Excerpt length not working properly?

I am running 3.4.9 and I have Excerpt length set to 200, yet the articles cut off at about around 60 works or so. It is properly displaying the custom read more link so it is executing correctly I'm just not sure what the problem could be. I'm not placing any manual read more breaks into the articles themselves and, as far as I know, I have it configured correctly. Am I missing something?

what version of WP and what is the url?
do you have any ''s in the post?

WP 2.9.2 and url is www.pvpgamer.com
No there are no more tags in the posts, which is really confusing me. The account info I sent you in PM should still be active if you want to take a look.

Just a little update. Done some testing trying to figure out what's causing this and I'll give you a couple examples here.
Text of lead article with excerpt length at 20:

Quote:

There is an awesome article written by lead content

Excerpt length at 50:

Quote:

Excerpt length at 100:

Quote:

There is an awesome article written by lead content designer Colin Johanson up at the Guild Wars 2 website. There is not any PvP relevance to the article but it did point out quite a few of the inherent flaws in PvE content that make it such a bitter pill to swallow. I won’t bother trying to rephrase the content as he says it much more ebulliently then I could manage so head on over and take

Excerpt length at 200:

Quote:

Excerpt length at 500:

Quote:

So you can see what I mean. It won't ever finish the article and add the last two words which should be "a look!" irregardless of the excerpt length. Not a major bug, but I don't think that's intended functionality. Might want to do some testing on how it handles posts that are < the excerpt length.

One other thing, I've set it up so that the <blockquote> tab is in the "Don't strip these tags" section so that they will show up on the main page, problem is if the expert ends in a blockquote the custom read more message will be included inside the blockquote as well. Solved that by just adding a </blockquote> to the beginning of my custom read more message but that's not a very elegant fix. Just something else to think about.

Ok, I've figured out what is happening, but do not have a fix yet.

There are two issues:

1) the excerpt stops two words before the end of the post
i.e. if you have a
post of 120 words and excerpt at 125 - you see 118 words and then [...]
post of 120 words and excerpt at 120 - you see 118 words and then [...]
post of 120 words and excerpt at 119 - you see 118 words and then [...]
post of 120 words and excerpt at 118 - you see 118 words and then [...]
post of 120 words and excerpt at 118 - you see 117 words and then [...]

2) for some reason multiple spaces stop the excerpt, so if you have a post of 120 words and excerpt at 119 - but theere are 2 or more spaces between the 39 and 40th words, you see 40 words and then [...]

Cool, thanks for looking into that.

Ok, I found out what was causing both errors and have fixed it (I hope) so download the attached file and renane your current functions.php to functions_orig.php and replace it with the attached ziped one (after unzipping it of course)
Attachment 504

NOTE: a WORD is any characters seperated by a space, so the text 'the quick brown fox' has 4 words. In an excerpt, HTML is normally stripped out so the text 'the quick brown fox' also has four words, but when you put things in the 'Don't strip these tags' things change.

If you add to the 'Don't strip these tags', the text 'the quick brown fox' now has six words even though you won't see them in the post.

So the HTML that is not stripped will count in the excerpt length which may look like it it is returning too few words.

Okay, I'm a little stumped. I am running v3.5.3 and I still can not get excerpts to show properly. I have seen some fixes, for previous versions, but either I am missing the one for this newest version or there isn't one. Anyone have ideas why this is happening on this version too?

I don't have anything mentioned in the "Don't strip these tags" field, although whether I leave that blank or have the default

HTML Code:

, I still don't get more text whether I have 55 words or 300 words.

Thanks.

P.S. The site I am working on is here http://www.presentationadvisors.com/blog1

Oh it works, but I need to control how much of a post shows. My client wants to show more than a few words, but each time to change the # of words I still end up with the same result. That is what I am coming up against, not being able to show more in the excerpt than what you currently see.

Yes, I do have the first post set to "full" and the others on the page are excerpts.

Okay, wait that is weird. I just checked the site again, and now it is working. What the heck? I have not worked in the site again, since posting my issue, and it was not showing properly then. So weird, obviously I have entered the Twilight Zone. If it is working now then I guess I am all good.

Thanks!

Okay, now I see what is weird. Previously the system was set to show full posts (all posts), though it was not doing that (it was showing the first one as full, and the others as excerpts). Now that I went in, and changed it back to excerpts, it is apparent that it is not showing 300 words (which is what I have it set for).

Am I totally using excerpts wrong? I just don't get, no matter how many characters I ask it to show it always shows the same thing.

Thanks, and sorry for the previous confusion.

Yeah, that is the problem. I have it set for 300 words, but it always cuts off after the 16. Is there another setting in WP, where excerpts are being dictated other than the Atahualpa Theme Options?

Nope, no caching at all. Bare bones as far as active plugins right now.

These were imported posts, that were brought over from Typepad, but the client did not add any of the manual "read more". I'll have to check on the automatic excerpts, cause I was not aware of those in Wordpress.

Thanks, again, for the help and insight.

Please copy and post the full contents of one of the posts. do the copy using the HTML editor and wrap it using the HTML icon above the reply area (it's next to the <> and PHP icons)

Thanks for the help. I actually was playing around yesterday, and did find that the client had excerpts filled in (in the post edit screen). This must have come over from Typepad, since he has not been editing the new site at all. Though, when I removed those I hoped the excerpts would jump start and show the first 300 words. Well, that didn't happen. Instead, using the second post on the blog as an example, the whole excerpt disappeared. Any new thoughts on why that is happening?

In the meantime, here is the HTML for the post. Although, I do now see a <more> tag....but again shouldn't I at least see the text that shows before that?:

HTML Code:

I'm so excited to bring this to you.  I came across this video just the other day when <a href="http://twitter.com/OliviaMitchell/status/27250047210" target="_blank">Olivia Mitchell tweeted</a> a <a href="http://www.timwasher.com/2010/10/when-powerpoint-attacks/" target="_blank">video of Tim Washer</a> avoiding a presentation disaster through the use of improv humor.   That's a great video as well.



I'll set the scene and give my thoughts after the jump.  This video features John Coleman, an MBA/MPA student at the <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard Business School</a> who is tasked with delivering a 7-minute venture capitalist presentation as part of the school's first annual "B.S. Contest" (Yes, that stands for bull shitake) sponsored by the <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/mba/studentlife/clubs/publicspeaking.html" target="_blank">Harvard Business School's Public Speaking club</a>.  The trick, though, is that he's NEVER seen the PowerPoint.  He doesn't even know the "product" he is pitching until AFTER his introduction (which is unfortuantely cut off).  In his case, his product is Robot Vending Machines - whatever that means.  I like it better than the 2nd place presenter's product - Removable Mustaches.  The class presentations are part of the Harvard Business School's Public Speaking club.  The lessons are plentiful.



<!--more-->



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John is absoultely amazing considering he's accompanied by a comical PowerPoint that he's never seen for a product that doesn't exist.  The 2nd place contestant wasn't even in the same ballpark as John.  He is obviously extremely bright, fearless, and able to think quickly.  He really blew me away.  I mean, how do you present to VC's with a picture of a monkey looking up a toddler's dress and <em>actually apply</em> it to your product?



Let's be fair though - <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/mba/perspectives/videos/226.html" target="_blank">John is no amateur</a>.  Aside from the whole "Harvard thing," since that's so easy, he's also a published author on effective communication and persuasion with his book entitled<em> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Argue-Like-Jesus-Communicator/dp/1433502712/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1" target="_blank">How to Argue Like Jesus</a></em> and was named the U.S. National College Speech Champion in 2004.



John does a bunch of stuff right, but also proves a few points about presenting as well:

<ol>

        <li><span style="color: #ff7f00;"><strong>Be Passionate</strong></span>

John’s passion seeps out of him.  As a viewer I was completely engaged.  John is able to suspend disbelief and put his whole being into this presentation as if he’d labored over the construction of the Robotic Vending Machine in his own basement for years.  <em><strong> </strong></em><em><strong>Lesson:</strong> Don't be afraid to let your passion shine - it's contagious. </em></li>

        <li><strong><span style="color: #ff7f00;">Be Funny</span></strong>

John took the task seriously, but interjected humor where appropriate.  The entire audience understood what was going on, and that makes for a funny exercise and a bit easier for John to coax a laugh out of them.  Taking it too seriously may have seemed disingenuous and could have acted against him.  He even handed out some sort of bribe at the end to the venture capitalists judging him.<em><strong>Lesson:</strong> Humor is also engaging, but as always, be CAREFUL.  Make sure it's appropriate and never force it.  But don't shy away from it, especially when things go wrong.</em></li>

        <li><strong><span style="color: #ff7f00;">Be Confident (Don’t Read)</span></strong>

You should be so confident in your knowledge of the content and the preparation you’ve done for it that you don’t HAVE to stare at the slide for more than a split second.  John peers back at the slides every-so-often, but only because they’re completely foreign to him.  Once he has a good grasp of what he’s looking at, ALL his focus returns to the audience.  John doesn’t even know what he’s talking about and he’s not reading his slides, yet I see subject matter experts presenting at conferences who read directly off their slide.  Really?  You really can’t disseminate knowledge without reading it?  And they’re paying you how much?  And I paid how much to see you speak?  John is presenting about robot vending machines and he doesn’t need read bullet points.<em><strong>Lesson:</strong> Using bullet points because you haven't mastered your content is no excuse.  Practice, practice, practice, and speak from the heart.  Use your slides only as a visual backdrop.</em></li>

</ol>

<div>



<strong></strong><a href="http://www.tjwalker.com/" target="_blank">TJ Walker</a> commented below and I thought he grasped my point exactly, only expressed it better, clearer, and more succinctly, so I thought I'd share: <span style="color: #ff7f00;">"This  does show that being a good presenter isn't just about practice. There  are set principles involved that can  help any presenter anytime."</span>



</div>

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have.  I haven't been able to watch many more of the videos, so if you find any others that are great, let me know in the comments.



I'm off to submit a patent for robotic vending machines wearing removable mustaches.

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Ugh. I knew there was a reason why I hate converting from one system to another. Removing the more tag, fixed the whole thing. Well, at least for that post. I am not going to go through each one and remove that tag. I assume there isn't an easier way to handle this - because it appears I need to remove the excerpts he might have typed for each post as well as the <more> tag.

Right?

Once again, thanks for the help! I didn't get a chance last night to go through the code, but copy/pasting it made it shout out at me - and I finally saw the problem.

:)

well, there is a way. you could use phpMyAdmin and do an update and replace all excerpts with null, This would get rid of all of them

HTML Code:

update wp_posts set post_excerpt =''

you could also add conditionals like the modified date to limit it if you want.