How to limit characters returned

[mugitty]

I'm using the Star Product contribution which has a provision to limit the number of charcters that are returned when presenting the product description:

$star_products_query = tep_db_query("select substring(pd.products_description, 1, 200) as products_description, p.products_id, ...etc.

This works fine, except it cuts off many times in the middle of a word.

 

The Description in Product Listing contribution uses a function to limit the listing and trims it so that words are not chopped off:

function tep_flatten_product_description($description, $link)
{
 $description = ereg_replace('<[^>]*>', '', $description);
 if (strlen($description) > PRODUCT_LIST_DESCRIPTION_MAX_LENGTH){
   $sub_description = wordwrap($description, PRODUCT_LIST_DESCRIPTION_MAX_LENGTH,'$@$');
       $sub_des = explode('$@$',$sub_description);
       $description = $sub_des[0];
       $description .= "...".$link;
     }
  return $description;
}

Is there a way to limit the Star Product return so it doesn't chop words without having to resort to re-writing the mod with a new function?

[thetraveller]

I'm using the Star Product contribution which has a provision to limit the number of charcters that are returned when presenting the product description:

$star_products_query = tep_db_query("select substring(pd.products_description, 1, 200) as products_description, p.products_id, ...etc.

This works fine, except it cuts off many times in the middle of a word.

 

The Description in Product Listing contribution uses a function to limit the listing and trims it so that words are not chopped off:

function tep_flatten_product_description($description, $link)
{
 $description = ereg_replace('<[^>]*>', '', $description);
 if (strlen($description) > PRODUCT_LIST_DESCRIPTION_MAX_LENGTH){
   $sub_description = wordwrap($description, PRODUCT_LIST_DESCRIPTION_MAX_LENGTH,'$@$');
       $sub_des = explode('$@$',$sub_description);
       $description = $sub_des[0];
       $description .= "...".$link;
     }
  return $description;
}

Is there a way to limit the Star Product return so it doesn't chop words without having to resort to re-writing the mod with a new function?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi:

 

You will get a better response if you post this into the support forum for the contribution located here:

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=106740

 

John

[mugitty]

Thanks, John, but the question is really about a universal method to limit characters and not chop a word halfway through without adding a whole new function...

 

It just happens to be needed in the Star Product module

[mugitty]

Thanks to Ivan Prieto who added a code snippet (surprisingly enough to the Star Product contribution) which will prevent the words from being chopped off at exactly the character count specified earlier in the code.

 

This is what I was looking for as a general way to limit text returned without chopping up words and without having to install a whole new function.

 

For those of you reading along, here is his modification (from about line 18 of the Star Product mod, but it could be easily adapted to other uses)

$star_products_query = tep_db_query("select substring(pd.products_description, 1, 200) as products_description, p.products_id, p.products_image, p.manufacturers_id, p.products_price, IF(s.status, s.specials_new_products_price, NULL) as specials_new_products_price, IF(s.status, s.specials_new_products_price, p.products_price) as final_price, p.products_tax_class_id, sp.product_id from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd, " . TABLE_STAR_PRODUCT . " sp left join " . TABLE_SPECIALS . " s on p.products_id = s.products_id where p.products_id = pd.products_id and p.products_status = '1' and pd.products_description != '' and p.products_id=sp.product_id and pd.language_id = '" . $languages_id . "'");
$star_products = tep_db_fetch_array($star_products_query);
$star_products['products_name'] = tep_get_products_name($star_products['products_id']);

// BOF Ivan's fix: evita cortar palabras - literally means "it avoids to cut words" - you can of course call the variable whatever you like as long as you use the same name in all 3 spots below

$evita_cortar_palabras = explode( ' ', $star_products["products_description"] );
array_pop( $evita_cortar_palabras );
$star_products["products_description"] = implode( ' ', $evita_cortar_palabras );

// EOF Ivan's fix