Limiting charachters in sidebar

This is the one I use as it’s in your list http://expressionengine.com/downloads/details/trunchtml/, are you talking strict validation?

I use the excellent Word Limit Plus and have modified it slightly for the very reason you raised this post on.

I changed the following lines:-

if ($the_link != "") {
    $str .= "<br><br>" . $the_link;
  }

to

if ($the_link != "") {
    $str .= "" . $the_link . "";
  } else {
    $str .= "";
}

My code amends do change the output if you provide a ‘the_link=’ parameter though, as I did not want 2 linebreaks, just the link on the same last line, e.g.

this is the text being trunc…Read on

In case you end up using TruncHTML, please note that the version found under http://expressionengine.com/downloads/details/trunchtml/ is outdated and a current version is found under http://utilitees.silenz.org/index.php/addons/software/trunchtml/.

Thanks for your replies

dvancouver - I am using a strict doctype yes.

baboonbrand - Yeah i have tried this, but then i realised if my paragraph ended naturally with the same amount of charachters set for the plugin parameter then i will have two </p> tags.

silenz - i was not aware of this, i’ll check it out thanks.

OK, I don’t have much time, but what about something like the attached amendment:-

I made a very crude php function to parse the string to see if a closing p exists, and if not then append one. However, i’m not a great php hardcore programmer, so I fully expect soemone to (a) correct me on where it’s wrong and (b) do the same but in one line!

I have changed this:-

if ($the_link != "") {
            $str .= "" . $the_link . "";
            } else {
            $str .= "";
        }

        return trim($str); 
    }
    // END

to this…

if ($the_link != "") {
            $str .= "" . $the_link . $this->Close_Paragraph ($str);
            } else {
            $str .= $this->Close_Paragraph($str);
        }

        return trim($str); 
    }
    // END    
    
    function Close_Paragraph($str)
    {
        $CP='';
        $iPosOpen = strrpos($str,"");
        if ($iPosOpen===false)
            {
            } else {
                $iPosClose = (strrpos($str,"",$iPosOpen));
                if ($iPosClose === false)
                    {
                        $CP = "";
                    } else {
                    }
            }
        return $CP;
    }

Like I said, please feel free to do a better job you guys out there, I just want to make something work…:D And sorry if I break any coding conventions or EllisLabs rules.