Insert ellipsis (…) into HTML tag if content too w

Question

I have a webpage with an elastic layout that changes its width if the browser window is resized.

In this layout there are headlines (h2) that will have a variable length (actually being headlines from blogposts that I don't have control over). Currently - if they are wider than the window - they are broken into two lines.

Is there an elegant, tested (cross-browser) solution - for example with jQuery - that shortens the innerHTML of that headline tag and adds "..." if the text would be too wide to fit into one line at the current screen/container width?

Answer 1

A more flexible jQuery plugin enabling you to keep a element after the ellipsis (for example a "read-more" button) and update onWindowResize. It also works around text with markup:

http://dotdotdot.frebsite.nl

Answer 2

I've got a solution working in FF3, Safari and IE6+ with single and multiline text

.ellipsis {
    white-space: nowrap;
    overflow: hidden;
}

.ellipsis.multiline {
    white-space: normal;
}

<div class="ellipsis" style="width: 100px; border: 1px solid black;">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit</div>
<div class="ellipsis multiline" style="width: 100px; height: 40px; border: 1px solid black; margin-bottom: 100px">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit</div>

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery.ellipsis.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(".ellipsis").ellipsis();
</script>

jquery.ellipsis.js

(function($) {
    $.fn.ellipsis = function()
    {
        return this.each(function()
        {
            var el = $(this);

            if(el.css("overflow") == "hidden")
            {
                var text = el.html();
                var multiline = el.hasClass('multiline');
                var t = $(this.cloneNode(true))
                    .hide()
                    .css('position', 'absolute')
                    .css('overflow', 'visible')
                    .width(multiline ? el.width() : 'auto')
                    .height(multiline ? 'auto' : el.height())
                    ;

                el.after(t);

                function height() { return t.height() > el.height(); };
                function width() { return t.width() > el.width(); };

                var func = multiline ? height : width;

                while (text.length > 0 && func())
                {
                    text = text.substr(0, text.length - 1);
                    t.html(text + "...");
                }

                el.html(t.html());
                t.remove();
            }
        });
    };
})(jQuery);

Answer 3

Just like @acSlater I couldn't find something for what I needed so I rolled my own. Sharing in case anyone else can use:

Method:

ellipsisIfNecessary(mystring,maxlength);

Usage:

trimmedString = ellipsisIfNecessary(mystring,50);

Code and Demo Link: https://gist.github.com/cemerson/10368014

Answer 4

I made a really cool jQuery plugin for handling all varieties of ellipsis of text is one called ThreeDots @ http://tpgblog.com/threedots

It's much more flexible than the CSS approaches, and supports much more advanced, customizable behaviors and interactions.

Enjoy.

Answer 5

Pure CSS Multi-line Ellipsis for text content:

.container{
    position: relative;  /* Essential */
    background-color: #bbb;  /* Essential */
    padding: 20px; /* Arbritrary */
}
.text {
    overflow: hidden;  /* Essential */
    /*text-overflow: ellipsis; Not needed */
    line-height: 16px;  /* Essential */
    max-height: 48px; /* Multiples of line-height */
}
.ellipsis {
    position: absolute;/* Relies on relative container */
    bottom: 20px; /* Matches container padding */
    right: 20px; /* Matches container padding */
    height: 16px; /* Matches line height */
    width: 30px; /* Arbritrary */
    background-color: inherit; /* Essential...or specify a color */
    padding-left: 8px; /* Arbritrary */
}

<div class="container">
    <div class="text">
        Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur eu in adipiscing elit. Aliquam consectetur venenatis blandit. Praesent vehicula, libero non pretium vulputate, lacus arcu facilisis lectus, sed feugiat tellus nulla eu dolor. Nulla porta bibendum lectus quis euismod. Aliquam volutpat ultricies porttitor. Cras risus nisi, accumsan vel cursus ut, sollicitudin vitae dolor. Fusce scelerisque eleifend lectus in bibendum. Suspendisse lacinia egestas felis a volutpat. Aliquam volutpat ultricies porttitor. Cras risus nisi, accumsan vel cursus ut, sollicitudin vitae dolor. Fusce scelerisque eleifend lectus in bibendum. Suspendisse lacinia egestas felis a volutpat.
    </div>
    <div class="ellipsis">...</div>
</div>

Please checkout the snippet for a live example.

Answer 6

Well, one simple solution, that doesn't quite add the "...", but does prevent the <h2> from breaking into two lines would be to add this bit of css:

h2 {
    height:some_height_in_px; /* this is the height of the line */
    overflow:hidden; /* so that the second (or third, fourth, etc.)
                        line is not visible */
}

I gave it some more thought, and I came up with this solution, you have to wrap the textual contents of your h2 tag with another tag (e.g. a span) (or alternatively wrap the h2s with something that has the given height) and then you can use this sort of javascript to filter out the unneeded words:

var elems = document.getElementById('conainter_of_h2s').
                     getElementsByTagName('h2');

    for ( var i = 0, l = elems.length; i < l; i++) {
        var span = elems.item(i).getElementsByTagName('span')[0];
        if ( span.offsetHeight > elems.item(i).offsetHeight ) {
            var text_arr = span.innerHTML.split(' ');
            for ( var j = text_arr.length - 1; j>0 ; j--) {
                delete text_arr[j];
                span.innerHTML = text_arr.join(' ') + '...';
                if ( span.offsetHeight <= 
                                        elems.item(i).offsetHeight ){
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
    }