Since WordPress v2.5, it is no longer possible to use the <!–more–> tag within a post in order to define an excerpt which will be used on both the web and feeds. Now, WordPress uses this tag to split a post for the web only, while the feeds can contain either the full-text or an excerpt that is calculated by WP. I hereby release the More-Feed-Excerpt plugin to all those whose who have gotten used to the old behavior and do not feel comfortable with this change.
Installation
To install the plugin, upload the more-feed-excerpt.php file in your wp-content/plugins/ directory and activate it through the WordPress Administration panel. No other action or configuration is required. The plugin does not interfere with the WordPress database or templates in any way, so uninstalling it is as simple as de-activating it.
License
More-Feed-Excerpt is an open-source project, released as Free Software under the terms of the Apache License version 2.
Downloads, Issue Tracking, Support
For the latest releases of More-Feed-Excerpt please visit the the More-Feed-Excerpt development web site.
This plugin is not available on the WordPress Plugin Repository.
This project is no longer supported. Submitting support requests, issue reports or feature requests is not possible at this time.
Further Reading
Make sure you read PiXELWiT’s suggestions on how to form the “Read More” link and the footer in your feed entries.
Special Thanks
I would like to publicly thank PiXELWiT for the support and Andrew Arensburger for code contribution.
Development Status
This plugin has been discontinued. There have been reports that it no longer works with recent WordPress releases, but it has not been tested. The developer no longer uses this plugin.
More-Feed-Excerpt WordPress Plugin by George Notaras is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2008 - Some Rights Reserved
This seems to be a bit different than the default behavior of pre 2.5 releases of WordPress. Is there any way to get the non-clickable link currently shown at the head of the feed excerpt placed at the bottom in a “more” link?
Hi there,
Know anyone how plugin to use if I want only a part of the article to be displayed? If someone want to read more there will be a “read more” link…
On my blog right now is displayed all of article content and I don’t want this…
I’m talking about the latest 10 articles displayed on the first page of my blog.
I’m using WordPress.
Can anyone help?
@PiXELWiT & Vic: Please use this plugin for more options. More-Feed-Excerpt was written for the needs of the G-loaded Journal. It is released as free software though, so you can customize it to suit your needs. Apart from that, we do not find it a good idea to use “read more” to link to each article, so this feature will not be implemented.
Thanks for your understanding.
Hello George, I appreciate your right and choice to not use a ‘read more” link at the end of each truncated feed, but I’m a bit curious to know why you say “…we do not find it a good idea to use “read more” to link to each article…”. Why don’t you think it’s a good idea? Just curious.
Hi PiXELWiT,
I believe a “read more” link is useless, since the article is linked by the title of the feed item. Moreover, I don’t find it a good idea to link each article with the text “read more” taking into account how search engines value the links to the content. I am not a SEO expert though, so I am open to suggestions.
On the other hand, indeed there should be something in the feed entry to indicate that this is the summary and not the whole content. This is a strong point and I will probably add a:
…at the end of the feed entry, whenever it has been split by the more tag.
Thanks for your feedback
George, thanks for the explanation. I understand what you’re saying about SEO and using “read more” text as your link. I’m currently using the Better Feed plugin and after a good amount of configuration, I finally have everything set up the way I want. Rather than using “read more” as link text, I set it up to use something like “Continue reading ‘Title of Blog Article’ ” as link text.
Even though there’s a link to the article at the top of the page, I still like having a link at the end/break in the article right where the reader is looking. I’d also like to get those 3 dots […] immediately behind the last word in the break, not on another line in new paragraph, but I haven’t had any luck with that yet.
Although the Better Feed plugin is highly configurable some people might not like the default settings, and changing the code can be a little daunting for non-programmers. I still think there’s a place for your More Feed Excerpt plugin. If your default settings meet most people’s needs, then there’s not much reason to use anything else. The easiest way to “meet people’s needs” would probably be to replicate the “read more” behavior of WordPress versions prior to 2.5.
Thanks for your time, advice and insight.
PiXELWiT, I appreciate your feedback. I’ll re-evaluate this plugin and probably add a few more features into it to make it customizable.
Thanks for your time.
You need a PayPal link somewhere so I can send you a tip.
PixelWit, thanks a lot for your interest in donating money. I really appreciate it. But, to me, a money donation means commitment to continue developing the software and add all those features a user would ask. I develop these plugins in my free time (computers are not really my field), basically for the needs of this website. I prefer not to “get paid” for them and thus stay away from any kind of commitment regarding the development of the software.
I would like to thank you for linking to this page from http://www.pixelwit.com.