By default, WordPress strips out all the HTML tags from your post excerpts. I needed to allow hyperlinks, but there is a problem when WordPress tries to truncate the post’s content. The wp_trim_excerpt function is what WordPress uses to do all the trimming work, I simply copied the code, modified it, and stuck my new version in the mu-plugins directory (or you could add it to your functions.php).

The first line I needed to change was the PHP function call strip_tags(). I need to set it to allow the <a> tag… very simple to do:

Original Line:

$text = strip_tags($text);

New Line:

$text = strip_tags($text, '<a>');

The second line I needed to change was where WordPress splits the excerpt up into separate words. This was a bit tricky because you run into an issue where you could be cutting of the </a>, which could screw up your entire page. I decided the best thing to do would be to treat the entire hyperlink as a single word. So, <a href=”http://lewayotte.com/”>My Website</a>, would count as a single word. By default, WordPress creates a 55 word excerpt. That is pretty easy to change as well.

Original Line:

$words = preg_split('/[\n\r\t ]', $text, $excerpt_length + 1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY );

New Line:

$words = preg_split('/(<a.*?a>)|\n|\r|\t|\s/', $text, $excerpt_length + 1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY|PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE );

Next, you simple need to remove the current wp_trim_excerpt filter and add a new one that points to your new function. Here is what the entire block of code looks like for me:

<?php
function new_wp_trim_excerpt($text) {
	$raw_excerpt = $text;
	if ( '' == $text ) {
		$text = get_the_content('');

		$text = strip_shortcodes( $text );

		$text = apply_filters('the_content', $text);
		$text = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $text);
		$text = strip_tags($text, '<a>');
		$excerpt_length = apply_filters('excerpt_length', 55);

		$excerpt_more = apply_filters('excerpt_more', ' ' . '[...]');
		$words = preg_split('/(<a.*?a>)|\n|\r|\t|\s/', $text, $excerpt_length + 1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY|PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE );
		if ( count($words) > $excerpt_length ) {
			array_pop($words);
			$text = implode(' ', $words);
			$text = $text . $excerpt_more;
		} else {
			$text = implode(' ', $words);
		}
	}
	return apply_filters('new_wp_trim_excerpt', $text, $raw_excerpt);

}
remove_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt');
add_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'new_wp_trim_excerpt');

Regular Expression Explained

I changed /[\n\r\t\s ]/ to /(<a.*?a>)|\n|\r|\t|\s/ because I needed to capture everything in the <a> HTML tags and count it as a single word. \n, \r, \t, \s are all pretty basic regex characters that preg_split() is using to break up the content. (<a.*?a>) is what captures everything in the <a> tag. The .* means all “characters” adding the ? to .* makes it “non-greedy.” This for the case where there are multiple hyperlinks in the content. It prevents the regex from thinking <a href=”link1″>link 1</a>, <a href=”link2″>link 2</a> is a single word. The parenthesis simply group the <a.*?a> together, so it doesn’t try to split those items separately and then I needed to add PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE to preg_split, or preg_split would have just removed the link as garbage.

You should be able to use this as a pretty solid base for adding other HTML tags.

One of my clients needs to pull an RSS feed from a real estate virtual tour provider and display it on one of their pages. I looked into a few plugins and could not find one that was easily customizable. After a quick google search I discovered that WordPress has some built-in functions based off of SimplePie‘s easy to use RSS API.

I also needed to customize the output a little bit, which required me to rely on PHP’s preg_match and preg_replace functions. Here is some simple example for embedding a feed into your WordPess website:

<?php
include_once(ABSPATH.WPINC.'/rss.php'); // path to include script
$feed = fetch_feed('http://url.to.feed/'); // specify feed url
?>

<?php
if (!is_wp_error($feed)) :
	$rss_items = $feed->get_items();
?>

	// Loop through each feed item and display each item as a hyperlink.
	<?php foreach ( $rss_items as $item ) : ?>

		<?php echo $item->get_title(); ?>
	

	<?php endforeach; ?>

Check out the codex for more information about WordPress’ function feed_fetch()… and with a little extra coding you can format the feed any way you like, see our example at NC Capital Homes.

I’m working on a project where I need the ability to add “Phone”, “Building”, and “Room” as information a user could add in their profile. I also wanted to remove “AIM”, “Yahoo”, and “Jabber” — none of the users are going to need to fill in that info.

You can easily add this code into your functions.php. I was writing it for a WordPress MU site with multiple themes and needed to make sure it was enforced, so I stuck it in the mu-plugins directory, in a file named “extended-contact-info.php”.

This is the simple code block you need:

function extended_contact_info($user_contactmethods) {
	//Use this if you want to append to the default
	//contact methods (AIM, Yahoo, Jabber)
	//$user_contactmethods += array(
	//	'building' => __('Building'),
	//	'room' => __('Room'),
	//	'phone' => __('Phone')
	//);

	//Use this if you want to ignore the default
	//contact methods (AIM, Yahoo, Jabber)
	$user_contactmethods = array(
		'building' => __('Building'),
		'room' => __('Room'),
		'phone' => __('Phone')
	);

	return $user_contactmethods;
}

add_filter('user_contactmethods', 'extended_contact_info');

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