jQuery text truncation (read more style)

Question

Hi There,

My question is very similar to "http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2104653/trim-text-to-340-chars" but in jQuery. It sounded very straight forward but when I searched around I couldn't find any reference for it.

Ok, I have a div $('#content') I want to trim the text to 'x' amount of characters lets say '600' BUT I don't want it to break the word it self! Like NOT 'The Ques...' BUT 'The Questions...'.

What happens to the rest of the text? Well, I hide it and will show it on request! But wait, it should first remove the '...' and show the text right after where it hid.

Here is the sample structure for $('#content'):

<div id="content">
    <p>Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.</p>
    <p>Writing example text is very boring.</p>
    <p>Specially when you are dumb enough not to copy and paste. Oh!</p>
    <p>Once it sheltered the rogues and rapscallions of the British Empire; now Kangaroo Island is ready and waiting for some derring-do of your own. Venture into the rugged wilds of the island, traversing untamed bushland and pristine beaches seeking out seal, penguin and sea lion colonies. Meet the land loving locals - koalas, goannas, echidnas and the island's own species of kangaroo. </p>
</div>

How it should load:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.

Writing example text is... [Read More]

After click on 'Read More':

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.

Writing example text is very boring.

Specially when you are dumb enough not to copy and paste. Oh!

Once it sheltered the rogues and rapscallions of the British Empire; now Kangaroo Island is ready and waiting for some derring-do of your own. Venture into the rugged wilds of the island, traversing untamed bushland and pristine beaches seeking out seal, penguin and sea lion colonies. Meet the land loving locals - koalas, goannas, echidnas and the island's own species of kangaroo.

---

UPDATE: I have found these two plug-ins that do basically same job as this best answer. However the best answer has some functionalities that those plug-ins don't have and vice versa!

• jTruncate
• Truncate

Answer 1

The following works for limiting the amount of text if you don't mind losing the paragraph tags.

<script type="text/javascript">
var shortText = $("#content").text()    // get the text within the div
    .trim()    // remove leading and trailing spaces
    .substring(0, 600)    // get first 600 characters
    .split(" ") // separate characters into an array of words
    .slice(0, -1)    // remove the last full or partial word
    .join(" ") + "..."; // combine into a single string and append "..."
</script>

Answer 2

This code presumes that tags will always be balanced, and that the only tag without a closer will be <br /> (though this could be easily remedied if needed).

#content {
    width: 800px;
    clear:both;
    clip:auto;
    overflow: hidden;
}
.revealText {
    background: white; /* Strange problem in ie8 where the sliding animation goes too far
                            if revealText doesn't have a background color!  */
}
.hiddenText {

}
.readMore {
    cursor: pointer;
    color: blue;
}
.ellipsis {
    color: black;
}

$('document').ready(function() {

truncate('#content');

$('.readMore').live('click', function() {
    var $hidden = $('.hiddenText');
    if($hidden.is(':hidden')) {
        $hidden.show();
        $(this).insertAfter($('#content')).children('.readMoreText').text(' [Read Less] ').siblings().hide();
    } else {
        $(this).appendTo($('.revealText')).children('.readMoreText').text(' [Read More] ').siblings().show();
        $hidden.hide();
    }
});

$('.readMore').click();

function truncate(element) {
    $(element + ' p').css({display: 'inline'});

    var theText = $(element).html();        // Original Text
    var item;                               // Current tag or text area being iterated
    var convertedText = '<span class="revealText">';    // String that will represent the finished result
    var limit = 154;                        // Max characters (though last word is retained in full)
    var counter = 0;                        // Track how far we've come (compared to limit)
    var lastTag;                            // Hold a reference to the last opening tag
    var lastOpenTags = [];                  // Stores an array of all opening tags (they get removed as tags are closed)
    var nowHiding = false;                  // Flag to set to show that we're now in the hiding phase

    theText = theText.replace(/[\s\n\r]{2,}/g, ' ');            // Consolidate multiple white-space characters down to one. (Otherwise the counter will count each of them.)
    theText = theText.replace(/(<[^<>]+>)/g,'|*|SPLITTER|*|$1|*|SPLITTER|*|');                      // Find all tags, and add a splitter to either side of them.
    theText = theText.replace(/(\|\*\|SPLITTER\|\*\|)(\s*)\|\*\|SPLITTER\|\*\|/g,'$1$2');           // Find consecutive splitters, and replace with one only.
    theText = theText.replace(/^[\s\t\r]*\|\*\|SPLITTER\|\*\||\|\*\|SPLITTER\|\*\|[\s\t\r]*$/g,''); // Get rid of unnecessary splitter (if any) at beginning and end.
    theText = theText.split(/\|\*\|SPLITTER\|\*\|/);            // Split theText where there's a splitter. Now we have an array of tags and words.

    for(var i in theText) {                                     // Iterate over the array of tags and words.
        item = theText[i];                                      // Store current iteration in a variable (for convenience)
        lastTag = lastOpenTags[lastOpenTags.length - 1];        // Store last opening tag in a variable (for convenience)
        if( !item.match(/<[^<>]+>/) ) {                         // If 'item' is not a tag, we have text
            if(lastTag && item.charAt(0) == ' ' && !lastTag[1].match(/span|SPAN/)) item = item.substr(1);   // Remove space from beginning of block elements (like IE does) to make results match cross browser
            if(!nowHiding) {                                        // If we haven't started hiding yet...
                counter += item.length;                             // Add length of text to counter.
                if(counter >= limit) {                              // If we're past the limit...
                    var length = item.length - 1;                   // Store the current item's length (minus one).
                    var position = (length) - (counter - limit);    // Get the position in the text where the limit landed.
                    while(position != length) {                     // As long as we haven't reached the end of the text...
                        if( !!item.charAt(position).match(/[\s\t\n]/) || position == length )   // Check if we have a space, or are at the end.
                            break;                                  // If so, break out of loop.
                        else position++;                            // Otherwise, increment position.
                    }
                    if(position != length) position--;
                    var closeTag = '', openTag = '';                // Initialize open and close tag for last tag.
                    if(lastTag) {                                   // If there was a last tag,
                        closeTag = '</' + lastTag[1] + '>';         // set the close tag to whatever the last tag was,
                        openTag = '<' + lastTag[1] + lastTag[2] + '>';  // and the open tag too.
                    }
                    // Create transition from revealed to hidden with the appropriate tags, and add it to our result string
                    var transition = '<span class="readMore"><span class="ellipsis">...</span><span class="readMoreText"> [Read More] </span></span>' + closeTag + '</span><span class="hiddenText">' + openTag;
                    convertedText += (position == length)   ? (item).substr(0) + transition
                                                                : (item).substr(0,position + 1) + transition + (item).substr(position + 1).replace(/^\s/, '&nbsp;');
                    nowHiding = true;       // Now we're hiding.
                    continue;               // Break out of this iteration.
                }
            }
        } else {                                                // Item wasn't text. It was a tag.
            if(!item.match(/<br>|<BR>/)) {                      // If it is a <br /> tag, ignore it.
                if(!item.match(/\//)) {                         // If it is not a closing tag...
                    lastOpenTags.push(item.match(/<(\w+)(\s*[^>]*)>/));     // Store it as the most recent open tag we've found.
                } else {                                                    // If it is a closing tag.
                    if(item.match(/<\/(\w+)>/)[1] == lastOpenTags[lastOpenTags.length - 1][1]) {    // If the closing tag is a paired match with the last opening tag...
                        lastOpenTags.pop();                                                         // ...remove the last opening tag.
                    }
                    if(item.match(/<\/[pP]>/)) {            // Check if it is a closing </p> tag
                        convertedText += ('<span class="paragraphBreak"><br> <br> </span>');    // If so, add two line breaks to form paragraph
                    }
                }
            }
        }   
        convertedText += (item);            // Add the item to the result string.
    }
    convertedText += ('</span>');           // After iterating over all tags and text, close the hiddenText tag.
    $(element).html(convertedText);         // Update the container with the result.
}
});


<div id="content">
    <p>Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.</p>
    <p>Writing example text is very boring.</p>
    <p>Specially when you are dumb enough not to copy and paste. Oh!</p>
    <p>Once it sheltered the rogues and rapscallions of the British Empire; now Kangaroo Island is ready and waiting for some derring-do of your own. Venture into the rugged wilds of the island, traversing untamed bushland and pristine beaches seeking out seal, penguin and sea lion colonies. Meet the land loving locals - koalas, goannas, echidnas and the island's own species of kangaroo. </p>
</div>

Answer 3

Well, There is a plugin for it. jQuery Expander.