Wordpress + Divi theme: control excerpt length based on category? - wordpress

Question

I have a category called 'News'. The category ID is '20'. I am using the Divi (Divi child) theme + Wordpress and want to shorten the excerpt for the News category.
I typically would use the 'add_filter' function like this:
<pre>
add_filter('excerpt_length', 'news_excerpt_length');
function news_excerpt_length($length) {
if(in_category(20)) {
return 30;
} else {
return 60;
}
}
</pre>
But that ain't workin'. I found the excerpt control in the 'main-modules.php' and figure to add my filter here? Has anyone done this?
I added the 'main-module.php' to the root of my child theme and then added this to my child 'functions.php'
<pre>
if ( ! function_exists( 'et_builder_add_main_elements' ) ) :
function et_builder_add_main_elements() {
require ET_BUILDER_DIR . 'main-structure-elements.php';
require 'main-modules.php';
do_action( 'et_builder_ready' );
}
endif;
</pre>
It didn't break the theme, but it didn't work either. Does anyone have any experience with this particular issue?
-Thanks!

Answer 1

To override the post_excerpt lengh, you can find in custom_functions.php the function truncate_post()
if ( ! function_exists( 'truncate_post' ) ) {
function truncate_post( $amount, $echo = true, $post = '', $strip_shortcodes = false ) {
global $shortname;
if ( '' == $post ) global $post;
$post_excerpt = '';
$post_excerpt = apply_filters( 'the_excerpt', $post->post_excerpt );
if ( 'on' == et_get_option( $shortname . '_use_excerpt' ) && '' != $post_excerpt ) {
if ( $echo ) echo $post_excerpt;
else return $post_excerpt;
} else {
// get the post content
$truncate = $post->post_content;
// remove caption shortcode from the post content
$truncate = preg_replace( '#\[caption[^\]]*?\].*?\[\/caption]#si', '', $truncate );
// remove post nav shortcode from the post content
$truncate = preg_replace( '#\[et_pb_post_nav[^\]]*?\].*?\[\/et_pb_post_nav]#si', '', $truncate );
// Remove audio shortcode from post content to prevent unwanted audio file on the excerpt
// due to unparsed audio shortcode
$truncate = preg_replace( '#\[audio[^\]]*?\].*?\[\/audio]#si', '', $truncate );
if ( $strip_shortcodes ) {
$truncate = et_strip_shortcodes( $truncate );
} else {
// apply content filters
$truncate = apply_filters( 'the_content', $truncate );
}
// decide if we need to append dots at the end of the string
if ( strlen( $truncate ) <= $amount ) {
$echo_out = '';
} else {
$echo_out = '...';
// $amount = $amount - 3;
}
// trim text to a certain number of characters, also remove spaces from the end of a string ( space counts as a character )
$truncate = rtrim( et_wp_trim_words( $truncate, $amount, '' ) );
// remove the last word to make sure we display all words correctly
if ( '' != $echo_out ) {
$new_words_array = (array) explode( ' ', $truncate );
array_pop( $new_words_array );
$truncate = implode( ' ', $new_words_array );
// append dots to the end of the string
$truncate .= $echo_out;
}
if ( $echo ) echo $truncate;
else return $truncate;
};
}
}
You don't need to put if ( ! function_exists( 'truncate_post' ) ) { to make it work just create your function with the same name in functions.php
If you are using a child theme (I really hope so with a theme like this), copy/paste index.php and paste these lines, line 54
if(in_category(20)) {
truncate_post( 30 );
} else {
truncate_post( 60 );
}
It can be easier
Hope it helps

Answer 2

I ended up doing it ( although I don't know which solution is better ) by putting this in my 'main-module.php' starting on line 12319
// do not display the content if it contains Blog, Post Slider, Fullwidth Post Slider, or Portfolio modules to avoid infinite loops
if ( ! has_shortcode( $post_content, 'et_pb_blog' ) && ! has_shortcode( $post_content, 'et_pb_portfolio' ) && ! has_shortcode( $post_content, 'et_pb_post_slider' ) && ! has_shortcode( $post_content, 'et_pb_fullwidth_post_slider' ) ) {
if ( 'on' === $show_content ) {
global $more;
// page builder doesn't support more tag, so display the_content() in case of post made with page builder
if ( et_pb_is_pagebuilder_used( get_the_ID() ) ) {
$more = 1;
the_content();
} else {
$more = null;
the_content( esc_html__( 'read more...', 'et_builder' ) );
}
} else {
if ( has_excerpt() ) {
the_excerpt();
} else {
if(in_category(20)) {
echo wpautop( truncate_post( 70, false ) );
} else {
echo wpautop( truncate_post( 370, false ) );
}
}
}
} else if ( has_excerpt() ) {
the_excerpt();
}