Title: Using excerpt as tag description
Last modified: March 22, 2017

---

# Using excerpt as tag description

 *  Resolved [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/)
 * Hello everyone,
 * I’m trying to create a function that allows me to replace the tag description
   with the excerpt of the same name/slug.
 * i.e. mypage.com/category/apples and mypage/tags/apple
 * Is this possible?
 * Here is what I have so far:
 *     ```
       function tags(){
       if (is_page('tag')){$tags = get_tags();}
       else{$tags = get_the_tags();}	
       if (! $tags){echo "";}
       else{
       $html = '<ul class="tags">' . "\r\n\t" . '<li>Tags: </li>' . "\r\n\t" . '';
       foreach ( $tags as $tag ){
       	$tag_link = get_tag_link( $tag->term_id );
       	$tag_group_labels = get_option( 'tag_group_labels', array() );
       	$tag_group_ids = get_option( 'tag_group_ids', array() );
       	$i = array_search($tag->term_group, $tag_group_ids);
       	$lower = array_map('strtolower', $tag_group_labels);
       	$description = str_replace('"', "''", $tag->description);
       	global $post;
   
       	$post_id = $tag->slug;
       	$id = get_post($post_id);
   
       	$html .= '<li class="' . $lower[$i] . ' ' . $tag->slug . ' tag">' . "\n\t";
       	$html .= '<a href="' . $tag_link . '"';
       	$html .= ' title="' . $tag->name . "\n\n";
   
       	$html .= 'tag name: ' . $post_id . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'post name: ' . $post->post_name . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'post id:' . get_the_ID() . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'tag description: ' . $description . "\n\n";
   
       	$html .= 'Tagged in ' . $tag->count . ' posts' . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'Catergory: ' . $tag_group_labels[$i] . "\n" . '">';
       	$html .= $tag->name;
       	$html .= '</a></li> '. "\n\n\t";
       	}
       $html .= '</ul>';
       echo $html;
       echo "\r\n";
       }
       }
       ```
   
 * $description is pulling in the actual description of the tag not the excerpt 
   of the corresponding post.
 * Thanx for looking,
    Sam
    -  This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/).
      Reason: Formatting
    -  This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/).

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8946600)
 * To get a post object by slug, you need to use get_posts() using the appropriate
   argument, as in `$args = array('name'=> $tag->slug,);` As there can be only one
   slug match, get_posts() will return at most an array of one element. From that
   the excerpt can be extracted. Something like `$description = $posts[0]->post_excerpt;`
 *  Thread Starter [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8957840)
 * Sorry for the late reply, alert went to my spam folder.
 * Thanx for getting back to me. I’ll report how it goes on Monday.
 * Regards,
    Sam
 *  Thread Starter [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8958469)
 * Hello again,
 * I’m not sure I’m implementing the code correctly.
 * I’ve declared my variables and called [0] from the array.
 *     ```
       foreach ( $tags as $tag ){
       ...
       $tagslug = $tag->slug;
       $args = array('name' => $tagslug);
       $excerpt = get_posts($args);
       $output = $excerpt[0]->post_excerpt;
       ...
       $html .= 'relative excerpt to tag: ' . $output . "\n\n";
       }
       ```
   
 * The tag description is generating from the excerpt but only if it matches the
   post it’s nested in, if that makes sense?
 * My foo tag is pulling in the foo post excerpt when the foo tag is in the foo 
   post but it doesn’t pull in any of the other tag’s relative excerpts.
 * What am I doing wrong?
 * Thanks again for your help,
    Sam
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8958599)
 * Maybe I’ve misconstrued what you’re trying to do. It sounds like your script 
   is doing what I expected.
 * > “it doesn’t pull in any of the other tag’s relative excerpts.”
 * I don’t understand. Where are the other tags supposed to get excerpts if not 
   from the excerpt of a post name that matches the tag’s slug?
 *  Thread Starter [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8958642)
 * I do want it to get the excerpt from the post with the slug the same name as 
   the tag and use it as the tag description but I’m doing something wrong.
 * The code works when the post slug and tag slug are equal.
    - post apples
       excerpt tag: apples (returns post apples excerpt as description)
      tag: banana (returns nothing)
    - post banana
       excerpt tag: apples (returns nothing) tag: banana (returns post
      banana excerpt as description)
 * The problem is me not explaining it very well.
 * Thanks again.
    -  This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/).
      Reason: formatting
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8961607)
 * Ah! I see what you mean now. Would you please post your entire function declaration
   for tags output? And confirm: this tags() function is called from a template 
   within a typical posts loop.
 *  Thread Starter [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8970386)
 * Here’s my tag function…
 *     ```
       function tags(){
   
       if (is_page('tag')){$tags = get_tags();}
       else{$tags = get_the_tags();}		
       if (! $tags){echo "";}
       else{
       $html = '<ul class="tags">' . "\r\n\t" . '<li>Tags: </li>' . "\r\n\t" . '';
       foreach ($tags as $tag){
       	$tag_link = get_tag_link($tag->term_id);
   
       	$tag_group_labels = get_option('tag_group_labels', array());
       	$tag_group_ids = get_option('tag_group_ids', array() );
       	$i = array_search($tag->term_group, $tag_group_ids);
       	$lower = array_map('strtolower', $tag_group_labels);
       	$description = str_replace('"', "''", $tag->description);
       	global $post;
   
       	//testing variables
       	$tagslug = $tag->slug;
       	$args = array('name' => $tagslug);
       	$excerpt = get_posts($args);
       	$output = $excerpt[0]->post_excerpt;
   
       	$html .= '<li class="' . $lower[$i] . ' ' . $tag->slug . ' tag">' . "\n\t";
       	$html .= '<a href="' . $tag_link . '"';
       	$html .= ' title="' . $tag->name . "\n\n";
   
       	//testing variables
       	$html .= 'tag slug: ' . $tag->slug . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'post name: ' . $post->post_name . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'post id: ' . get_the_ID() . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'tag id: ' . $tag->term_id . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'tag description: ' . $description . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'post excerpt: ' . $post->post_excerpt . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'relative excerpt to tag: ' . $output . "\n\n";			
   
       	$html .= 'Tagged in ' . $tag->count . ' posts' . "\n\n";
       	$html .= 'Catergory: ' . $tag_group_labels[$i] . "\n" . '">';
       	$html .= $tag->name;
       	$html .= '</a></li> '. "\n\n\t";
       	}
       $html .= '</ul>';
       echo $html;
       echo "\r\n";
       }
       }
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8970387)
 * …and here’s how I’m calling it in the loop…
 *     ```
       $cats = array(
       'corporations',//2
       'events',//3 
       'media',//4
       'operations',//5
       'organisations',//6
       'people',//7
       'places',//8
       'products',//9
       'projects',//10
       'recent-enteries');//3685
   
       foreach ($cats as $c){
       $posts = query_posts( $query_string . '&orderby=' . $_SESSION['selection'] . '&order=' . $_SESSION['order'] . '&cat=' . $c );
   
       if( $posts ) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();
   
       echo '<article>' . "\n";
       	title();
       	thumbnail();
       	echo '<div class="content_container">';
       		echo '<div class="excerpt">' . the_excerpt() . '</div>' . "\n";
       		if(strpos($post->post_content, '<!--nextpage-->')){
       			echo '<p class="postcount">This post contains multiple pages: ';
       			single_link_pages();
       			echo '</p>';
       			}
       		echo '<div class="post_footer">';
       			if (function_exists(posted)){posted();}
       			if (function_exists(updated)){updated();}
       			if (function_exists(wordcount)){wordcount();}
       			echo '</div><!--end post_footer-->';
       		echo '</div><!--end content_container-->';
       	<strong>tags();</strong>
       	echo '</article>' . "\n\n";
       endwhile;
       endif;
       }
       ```
   
 * Thanks for getting back to me. I’ve hit a wall and struggling to understand.
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8972378)
 * FYI, you original long code listing post eventually went through, it got put 
   in the moderation queue, probably because of the long code. One of our mods eventually
   released it. I should have warned you about posting a lot of code. For future
   reference, please use pastebin.com for extended code snippets and just link to
   it here. I also removed redundant and superfluous posts from view to keep things
   orderly. Generally speaking, if a post that should have gone through (i.e. not
   actual spam) does not appear to go through, just wait a while, things usually
   sort themselves out. Either the cache refreshes or a mod releases your post from
   moderation. Going to moderation does not mean you did anything wrong, the posts
   the system finds needing further examination have no rhyme or reason to what 
   it picks. It picks posts, mods look at it and typically release it. It just takes
   a while.
 * Anyway, back to your code. I tried to adapt it to my installation with minimal
   adjustments. I did find a few issues that should be addressed, but they are unrelated(
   I think) to getting post excerpts from tag slugs. The excerpts from tag slugs
   works fine AFAICT. So address these items I noticed and see if that helps any.
   Fixing these will at least allow you to be closer to determining the cause if
   it’s not fixed outright.
 * In the loop, in those function_exists() arguments (posted, updated, wordcount),
   each argument must be presented as a string: `function_exists('posted'))`
 * If there is not already a similar line on your template, add a `global $post;`
   line first thing in the loop.
 * This line: `<strong>tags();</strong>` is bad syntax. Make it into proper echo
   statements
 *     ```
       echo '<strong>';
       tags();
       echo '</strong>';
       ```
   
 * In the tags() function, I got invalid index errors due to the $i value. Probably
   because I do not have any tag groups. I commented out any lines with $i. If these
   work for you, then fine. I just cannot confirm if they work correctly or not.
 * If there is any chance at all that there is a tag slug without a corresponding
   post with excerpt, you need to add this line right below the get_posts() call:
   `
   if (!$excerpt ) continue;`
 * The tags() output was not displaying because all of the debug content ended up
   being illegal anchor tag attributes. Just so the output displays, I changed this
   line: `$html .= ' title="' . $tag->name . "\n\n";` to this:
    `$html .= ' title
   ="' . $tag->name . "\">link</a>\n\n";`
 * And removed the `</a>` from this line: `$html .= '</a></li> '. "\n\n\t";`
 * The above may be fine without the debug output. I only changed it to easily see
   the output. I queried for posts completely unrelated to the posts I added that
   matched tag slugs, so this should be the same situation as “bannana” being unrelated
   to “apples”, which in your case returned nothing. In my testing, your code, except
   altered as noted, returned excerpts from posts with the same tag slug, even though
   the tag slugs did not relate to posts in the loop. The loop posts merely had 
   tags assigned, their slugs had nothing similar to tag slugs.
 * If, after making the corrections I suggested, you still have trouble getting 
   unrelated tag->post excerpts, first double check the page’s HTML source to make
   sure the data is not simply hidden from view. If not that, apparently some plugin
   or your theme is causing unwanted interactions. Try deactivating all plugins 
   and switching to the twentysixteen theme. Make a copy of twentysixteen’s page.
   php, giving it a new name. Replace the header comment with something like `/*
   Template Name: Tag Excerpt Test */` Replace all of the loop code with your own.
   Place the tags() function declaration between the header comment and `get_header();?
   >`
 * Create a new WP page based on this template. View the new page. If all was done
   correctly, you should see a complete list as you expected, in particular the 
   tag->post excerpts should work for all tags.
 * Reactivate your plugins one by one. Test your custom page after each. Once the
   output goes bad again, the last activated plugin is the culprit. If you activate
   all of your plugins and no problems recur, the problem was likely your theme.
   Confirm by copying your custom template to your normal theme, the reactivate 
   your normal theme and view the new page. It should fail. If it looks good, determine
   why the page works and your original code does not. What’s different?
    -  This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/).
      Reason: added missing backticks in line with tags()
 *  Thread Starter [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-8981721)
 * This is gold!
 * Thank you. I’ll try these suggestions tomorrow when I have some spare time. Think
   I’m going to install the 20 16 theme and step through each point as you suggest.
 * Really appreciate you taking time to help me out.
 * Thanx again.
 *  Thread Starter [Galaxy_High](https://wordpress.org/support/users/galaxy_high/)
 * (@galaxy_high)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-9005003)
 * It’s what you predictided; I broke my theme somehow.
 * Started from scratch and everything seems to be working fine.
 * Thanks for all your help.
 * Regards,
    Sam
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-9006699)
 * You’re welcome. Probably just as well. Many times I’ve embarked on a project,
   only to run into unforeseen issues. In dealing with these issues, the code becomes
   a mess. Starting over while knowing what issues will be encountered results in
   much better code. I write off the initial effort as a trial, proof of concept
   run 🙂

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

The topic ‘Using excerpt as tag description’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [description](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/description/)
 * [excerpt](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/excerpt/)
 * [function](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/function/)
 * [tag](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/tag/)

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 15 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-excerpt-as-tag-description/#post-9006699)
 * Status: resolved

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