function custom_excerpt_length( $length ) {
return 20;
}
add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'custom_excerpt_length', 999 );

Once I’d put this in my functions.php file I reloaded the site and what did I see…

Nothing, it didn’t truncate the text, why didn’t it work?

Well after some googling I found out that you can only truncate the auto generated excerpt which is created when you call ‘the_excerpt()’.

I really needed this functionality, so I created this simple snippet you can put in your functions file to truncate the manual excerpt or anything you can echo (just incase).

In this example I’ve added the excerpt to my pages post type, but you can easily do this to regular posts too.

First just add this to your functions.php

// This add the excerpt widget to your pages in the admin area
add_action( 'init', 'add_excerpts_to_pages' );
function add_excerpts_to_pages() {
add_post_type_support( 'page', 'excerpt' );
}
// This creates the function for truncating
// $string = the echoed text you’d like to truncate i.e. the_excerpt()
function limit_excerpt($string, $word_limit) {
$words = explode(' ', $string, ($word_limit + 1));
if(count($words) > $word_limit)
array_pop($words);
return implode(' ', $words);
}

Then just add this to your page.php

// this displays the excerpts first 15 words and then an ellipses
echo limit_excerpt($excerpt,15) . "…\r\n";

Pretty simple, but really handy, You can also use this to truncate the_content() too, just replace $excerpt with $content.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas for improvements in the comments.

Back in April 2010, following criticism from the late Steve Jobs, Adobe resolutely stood by its Flash mobile plug-in, suggesting it would “continue to be the dominant tool” for media across the internet. Just over 18 months later and Adobe has had a change of heart, commenting via its blog that HTML5 is the “best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms”.

It’s hardly surprising given that HTML is universally supported across major mobile devices and, in the case of Apple’s iPad and iPod, exclusively so.

Resource hog

Having experienced working with both flash, and more recently, HTML5 as a front end developer, I can’t think of a single reason why Flash will be required any longer, especially in the mobile domain.

For starters, Flash has always been a resource hog. In order to process a Flash movie, for example, a user’s CPU/GPU has to do a variety of vector calculations and more besides (all the while eating up memory and slowing down the user’s system). The pay-off, of course, was that users got pretty graphics, nice animation and good support for audio/video.

To some degree with HTML5/CSS3 it’s now possible to reproduce these graphics and animations, and some would argue it offers even stronger audio/video capabilities; all in a much more controlled approach by the browser (i.e. less processor intensive).

So why not let the browser and HTML5 do the work natively, rather than through a third-party plug-in?

HTML5 support

As IDC analyst Al Hilwa also pointed out… “…HTML5 is coming on strong as a standard, accelerated by the speed of change of hardware devices. By 2013 we will reach a point where 90% of smartphones and tablets will sport HTML5 capable browsers.”

So as we can see, with HTML5 so well supported already (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) and the support only increasing, why continue using Flash?

“But what about my flash games?” I hear you (and many of the Rippleffect team) cry. Well, following this announcement from Adobe, it can only be a matter of time before we start to see everyone’s favourite games popping up in every major platforms app store, as well as the now inevitable HTML5 versions.

Desktop accessibility

More important, however, is accessibility on the desktop; and I think this is where flash will be disappearing from next.

Flash worked wonders for clients who wanted slick-looking websites all the way back to its first version. But it has always had a major flaw: its lack of accessibility.

As our understanding of web standards and users’ needs have grown, so too has the demand for accessible sites. Businesses want to reach as many people as possible with their message, but have to compromise on the design due to Flash’s lack of accessibility.

HTML5 gives us the tools to create the sites clients have always wanted; a website that is compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium’s AAA standard for accessibility, but which also looks amazing.

Digital agencies and businesses should be embracing HTML5 with open arms.

I originally wrote this for the rippleffect.com’s blog (bear in mind this was heavily edited to make me sound like I know what i’m talking about)

I implore anyone interested in music, whatever the genre, to come and see Neil live. Its an experience not to be missed!

Tickets are £8 (£6 concessions) and are available at the venue on the door
please click here for a map

For more information on Neil, visit his website at: http://www.neilcampbell.org.uk/

Due to the nature of my search, I couldn’t tell you the exact source, but I ‘discovered’ a side project from Manchester Orchestra frontman Andy Hull, entitled Right Away Great Captain! He created a trilogy telling the, as of now, ongoing saga of a 17th century sailor who catches his wife sleeping with his brother. I decided to give the project a listen. The first track I heard was ‘Cutting off the Blood to ten’.

“Well I didn’t think it would end like this cutting of the blood to ten with a rope around my wrist…”

Considering this is a fictional story, the sincerity shone through every aspect of the music, from Andy’s hushed vocals to the sparsely produced guitar riffs, everything about this song made me want to hear more. So I did, 2 albums at 25 tracks in total later, and I was in love.

The first album of the trilogy, The Bitter End was recorded in only 3 days! Each song is a journal entry, either aimed toward his family at home or to his captain. The second and newest release to date, The Eventually Home tells of the sailor returning home from sea with the intention of killing both his wife and brother. Lots of dark emotions running through these albums then.

I’ve fallen for albums before, but these have taken up space in my conscience like no others ever have, they haunt me. I care that our protagonist has suffered a devastating betrayal. I worry whether he’ll drown in his own despair. But more than this, I feel like the aura of the album transcends the humdrum constraints of the everyday, making it another landmark in the soundtrack to my life.

In summery you should hear The Eventually Home and The Bitter End for yourselves, they’re really good.

Well about a month ago now, I had one of those days. I was having a nightmare day at the office, nothing was going right, I came close to screaming until my ears bleed, then I realised the new Fionn Regan album had been freshly uploaded to my iPod and I’d not yet listened to it.

From track one my mood was lifted and shoes became a distant memory. Fionn Regan’s “The Shadow of an Empire” is brilliant and its first track, ‘Protection Racket’ is my feel good hit of the summer.

That’s all I wanted to say.

My names David Churchill, I’ve been dabbling in web development since I was a padawan. Skip forward a few years to when I left school, I decided I should get some qualifications in what I loved, web design, so got myself onto a course.

After 4 years of education, and many a drunken night out, I needed a job. At first it was a struggle, with a portfolio lacking content, and freelance sites seeming pretty difficult to come by. I ended up working in various other areas, But I always kept up to date with the latest technologies and web development initiatives.

So I eventually got a job at a small privately owned firm, doing what I was born too, website stuff! With the experience from that job, and a few freelance sites under my belt, I moved to to bigger and better things, Cut to now, where I’m a dealer site designer at Auto Trader Digital.

So that’s pretty much my story, its probably only interesting to me, and maybe my mother, but it at least took up some space on this new blog of mine. I promise, the next post will be more focused on web design and development techniques. I might even do something about web standards…

I’ve always felt designing and building with standards was awesome. You see it simplifies and lowers the cost of site production, while delivering sites that are accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices.

But even more so, sites developed along these lines will continue to function correctly as traditional desktop browsers evolve, and as new Internet devices come to the market.

I imagine I’ll post more about this in the future, I may even look at posting some WordPress related stuff. I’ve been working towards coding all my newer sites with WordPress as a foundation.