Full Post on Blog Archive

On a WordPress project, I wanted to display the full post on the blog archive unless a manual excerpt had been created for the post (in which case I wanted to use the manual excerpt).

I’m a big fan of the Genesis framework and in the Genesis theme settings under Content Archives there is a Display option where you can choose between:

• Entry content
• Entry excerpt

Genesis Settings Screenshot

The problem here is when you choose Entry content, the content is used regardless of whether or not the post has a manual excerpt. In my case, I wanted a manual excerpt to override displaying the Entry content.

Solution

Step 1: Remove the Default Excerpt

remove_filter( 'get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt' );

Step 2: Add Our Own Excerpt Filter

add_filter( 'get_the_excerpt', function( $excerpt ) {
    if ( $excerpt ) {
        // If an excerpt already exists (e.g. manual excerpt) display it.
        return $excerpt;
    }
    // Use the full post content as the excerpt.
    return get_the_content();
});

Full Solution

This is the code I place in my home.php template because I only wanted this behavior on the Posts Page (a.k.a. blog page). You could place this code somewhere else (e.g. a mu-plugins file or functions.php, see functions.php vs plugin vs mu-plugin for WordPress for more information on these choices).

/**
 * Use the full post content as the excerpt
 * unless a manual excerpt exists.
 */
remove_filter( 'get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt' );
add_filter( 'get_the_excerpt', function( $excerpt ) {
    if ( $excerpt ) {
        // If a excerpt already exists (e.g. manual excerpt) display it.
        return $excerpt;
    }
    return get_the_content();
});

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.