Currently in a wordpress template, if you use the code the_excerpt() it will display the first 55 words of a post and strips all html from the post.
I need to include <a href... tags in the excerpt so that links are still visible.
Existing methods include:
- Hacking the wordpress core – definitely not an option.
- using a plugin – don’t want to use, it’s dependent on the developer keeping the plugin up to date
- writing code within functions.php to re-write the excerpt filter. – I’d prefer not to use this as it might have to be changed in future versions of WP
Is there a filter hook or other known method to include html easily without hacks?
All help is appreciated!
Cheers.
As I see it, you can only use method 2 and 3; both of them can be updated via WordPress’ back-end with virtually no programming required which is ideal if you’re going to be installing and using them on client sites.
Here’s a tutorial with working code for method 3 — http://aaronrussell.co.uk/legacy/improving-wordpress-the_excerpt/ and here’s a plugin to use method 2 — http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-excerpt/
I use the following statement sometimes to get the first 55 words of a post content.