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1. jhkb
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   I'm building a theme which has the most recent post image, title and excerpt on the front page for each category. My problem is that I can only get the manual excerpt to appear at a full 55 words.

   I have a shortened automatic excerpt elsewhere on category.php - but within the loop, using the_excerpt() and this in my functions file:

   function custom_excerpt_length( $length ) {
   	return 10;
   }
   add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'custom_excerpt_length', 999 );

   Ideally, to fit with the theme layout, and for ease of use, I want to be able to display an automatic excerpt of about 10-20 words outside the loop on my homepage. Is this possible?

   Thanks!

2. keesiemeijer
   moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   My problem is that I can only get the manual excerpt to appear at a full 55 words.

   There is no default limit to the length of the manual excerpt.

   try:
   - deactivating all plugins to see if this resolves the problem? If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).

   - switching to the default theme to rule out any theme-specific problems.

   Or try these functions if you want many different automatic excerpt length: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/two-different-excerpt-lengths.

3. jhkb
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   Hi, thanks for the suggestion - I found that post whilst searching for an answer and unfortunately it doesn't work either. Not sure why it just returns an empty tag.

   Also tested my plugins and theme they don't seem to be causing a problem, should the_excerpt display an automatic excerpt outside the loop if there's no manual text given? I had thought not?

   The closest I've found is this function which allows the manual excerpt to be shortened wherever it's displayed: http://www.transformationpowertools.com/wordpress/automatically-shorten-manual-excerpt

   This might just be a little over my head perhaps...

4. keesiemeijer
   moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   Not sure why it just returns an empty tag

   Not sure what you mean by that?

   should the_excerpt display an automatic excerpt outside the loop

   the_excerpt() only works inside the loop.

5. jhkb
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   I'm just left with empty markup, which I've got around the tag. I've pasted the function that you have in pastebin and used get_my_excerpt(20, 69); for the post i'm testing it with, but no joy.

   Either way I'm not sure that is going to work if I have to put the post id in every time. I'm using a set of 'mini loops' that pull through the 5 most recent posts in each category so need it as automated as possible.

   I have the solution above that sort of fits my needs, I just need to make sure there's a written excerpt for all posts, so it's no problem if there's not an easy solution for generating automatic ones.

   Thanks anyway.

6. keesiemeijer
   moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   I'm using a set of 'mini loops' that pull through the 5 most recent posts in each category so need it as automated as possible.

   Can you paste and submit the full code of those 'mini loops' into a pastebin.com and post the link to it here? see the Forum Rules for posting code and using the pastebin.

7. jhkb
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   Here is one of the loops: http://pastebin.com/MdwruHXh

   and my functions.php: http://pastebin.com/GetnxhnX

   This is using the second method from transformationpowertools.com. Thanks.

8. keesiemeijer
   moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #
   

   Try using setup_postdata() after each get_posts();
   

   $myposts = get_posts('showposts=1&cat=1');
   foreach($myposts as $post) :
   setup_postdata($post);
   // rest of code
   the_excerpt();
   //rest of code
   endforeach;

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