Don’t Forget <MTEntryExcerpt>!


Published on April 27, 2005 at 12:45 PM EST
Last updated on October 9, 2006 at 12:01 AM EST
In the Discussions category.

I keep reading about people needing another field for tags or whatever, because they’re already using the Keywords field (<MTEntryKeywords> tag) for something else. Don’t forget, the Excerpt field (<MTEntryExcerpt> tag) is—or can be—available to use! If you’re currently using…

I keep reading about people needing another field for tags or whatever, because they’re already using the Keywords field (<MTEntryKeywords> tag) for something else. Don’t forget, the Excerpt field (<MTEntryExcerpt> tag) is—or can be—available to use!

If you’re currently using the <MTEntryExcerpt> tag to create excerpts and want that same behavior, try replacing it with <MTEntryBody words="20" convert_breaks="0">.

You might need to use the “Customize the display of this page” tool to make the Excerpt field visible on the Edit Entry page.

This article is tagged as: Discussions, Template Tags

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Comments

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1

By Jay Allen [TypeKey Profile Page], written on April 5, 2006 at 12:45 AM.

Hey Dan. Actually, the Excerpt field is one of the two MT fields (the title being the other) that should be considered sacrosanct because of it’s semantic value and usage throughout the program.

To illustrate that point, I dug through the MT code and found all of the places that the entry excerpt is used:

  • The summary for results returned by MT’s public search interface
  • The Atom feed summaries
  • The summary for sent TrackBack pings
  • The summary of new entry notifications
  • The summary for individual entry TrackBack RSS feed items
  • The summary shown by XML-RPC clients in both the list of recent posts and individual entries
  • The excerpt for each entry in an entry export

Only the first two items can be remedied by removing the MTEntryExcerpt tag. All of the others created by Movable Type inside the code.

While this has been a bit of sore spot for me in the past, with the advent of awesome plugins like Custom Fields and RightFields, we no longer need to squeeze every last ounce out of Movable Type’s entry fields and so I’m fine with letting Movable Type do its job.

Plus, the entry excerpt is kind of nice in that it’s the only place that bloggers — a group not known for conserving words — are made succinct by design. :-)

On a final note, I can’t remember whether I actually told you this or not, but, not surprisingly, I love the site and really enjoy your posts. Keep em coming!

Take care,
Jay Allen
Product Manager - Movable Type
Six Apart - Professional Products Group

P.S. Hey! Someone stole your preview button!!! Do you need another? We have plenty back at the blog factory.

2

By Jay Allen [TypeKey Profile Page], written on April 5, 2006 at 1:08 AM.

Also, I just want to point out that information like what I posted previously can be found in the MT User Manual.

We’re constantly working on improving the manual and in fact, I just stole some of my wording in the previous comment to upgrade the linked entry above. Little improvements add up over time. :-)

Take care,
-j-

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