Automatic Read More in Joomla

February 7th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

We've always wanted to be able to set up Joomla to automatically add a "Read More" link for articles in Category Blog or Section Blog Layouts so that the articles would all be the same length and they would line up just as pretty as you please.  Google revealed a handful of other people attempting the same thing, but having no solution.  So Mango wrote a plugin for it.


By popular request, we have added the following new features in the new Version 1.1 Beta 3:
  • Thumbnails are linked to the full version of the article.
  • Portuguese and Spanish language files are included.  Thanks to the volunteers who translated these!
  • FJ Related Articles is tentatively supported.
  • "Developer mode" feature to assist PHP coders in making Auto Read More compatible with other modules.
  • Bug where special characters were not displayed correctly has been fixed.
  • Bug where multiple thumbnails were sometimes not displayed correctly has been fixed.

Features:
  • Automatically adds "Read more..." link after a configurable number of characters.
  • Articles with shorter intro text display their intro text only.
  • Works on the Front Page, Category Blog, or Section Blog.
  • Will not break HTML or break the article in the middle of a word.
  • Configurable to ignore specific categories, sections, articles, or the Front Page.
  • Commented so that you may read through the code and add your own features if you like.
Latest version (1.1 Beta 3): Download Plugin to insert Read More links automatically in Joomla articles

Note: If you already use a different version of Auto Read More, you must uninstall it first.

Old versions: 1.0, 1.1 Beta, 1.1 Beta 2

Feature requests, bug reports, and general comments welcome!

Please note: we regret that this plugin is not yet compatible with Joomla 1.6.  We are currently looking for a volunteer to upgrade the plugin.  If you're interested, please leave a comment below.
 
  1. June 27th, 2009 at 19:06 | #1

    Excellent

    Just what I was looking for!
    It works perfectly. Thank you very much
     

  2. June 29th, 2009 at 02:25 | #2

    Hi..
    Super Sexy Plug in
    You know..
    With the addition of the image features via lightbox, tags, and Add this button.
    I gues no more need to other CCK inside joomla 1.6
    Beacause using your plugin enable of creating sexy news and magazines for sports and other fields easy.

    I do like it..
    I will support it too by all maens.
     

  3. Emma
    July 22nd, 2009 at 01:12 | #3

    Sorry I'm new in joomla and I want to use this plugin. I have installed it but I do not how to use it. Cueck!
    :-(
     

  4. July 22nd, 2009 at 06:40 | #4

    Hey Emma,

    From the Extensions menu, click Plugins.  Then find "Content - Auto Read More".  If there is a red and white X beside it, it's not yet enabled, so click the X to enable it.  Once it's enabled you should be able to click "Content - Auto Read More" to configure the plugin.  Hope that helps!

    m.  :)
     

  5. August 29th, 2009 at 15:03 | #5

    Excellent thank you so much
    this should be in core joomla next version
     

  6. August 29th, 2009 at 16:09 | #6

    Excellent thank you so much
     

  7. Mark
    August 30th, 2009 at 06:05 | #7

    Any news for the image implement? Nice ; )
     

  8. Mark
    August 30th, 2009 at 06:12 | #8

    ooopss..sorry didn't check the update! NICE JOB!!
     

  9. August 30th, 2009 at 08:38 | #9

    Tried copying the php and xml from the beta zip in place of existing files in plugins directory. Totally breaks joomla :(

    Original worked great. New one dont work at all. So pity.
     

  10. August 30th, 2009 at 09:01 | #10

    You need to uninstall the old version before installing the new one.  However, it's possible that what you did made the problem worse and now it will not automatically uninstall.  In that case, do a manual uninstall by removing the Auto Read More row in the #__plugins table, delete the php and xml file, and also the language file from /administrator/language.

    m.
     

  11. August 30th, 2009 at 09:26 | #11

    So where is this Tidy thing???
     

  12. August 30th, 2009 at 09:33 | #12

    Tidy can be installed as a PHP extension.  Ask your systems administrator or web hosting company to install it, if you don't already have it.  Any decent web host will likely already have it.

    m.
     

  13. September 1st, 2009 at 02:25 | #13

    Thanks for your really nice plugin. Especially the Beta 1.1 is awful.
    Unfortunately there are two issues who still need to be solved.
    - support for plugins like tabs&slides or the AllVideosPlugin
    - Support for languagespecific characters
    Thank yu very much much for your work.
     

  14. September 1st, 2009 at 04:06 | #14

    Compliment fail :-?

    We apologize that the plugin is not designed to be compatible with Tabs & Slides or AllVideos.

    Character issue will be fixed asap.

    m.
     

  15. September 4th, 2009 at 11:33 | #15

    this is the error i get after installing it.

    Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in /hermes/web01c/b1086/pow.hrg2008/htdocs/plugins/content/AutoReadMore.php on line 30

    The original one works great. This is exactly what i need because it includes thumbnail images. If you have a solution to the above error i would love it. If not, keep up the good work because Im so excited about a stable plugin like this. Thanks
     

  16. September 9th, 2009 at 07:47 | #16

    Hi,

    I'm using your plugin since a few minutes and its very great! I searched around the web for a while for a simple solution and now I found it. Do you think that you can extend your plugin so that it's also adding a link on the mod_newsflash module? I'm using that on the front page and the articles a nice but theres always the full one in the newsflash at the bottom.
     

  17. September 11th, 2009 at 04:44 | #17

    Spot on mate, just the ticket. Running the old version and just popped over here to enquire about why the anchor links were missing on my into's and noticed the updated version that doesnt strip html, will upgrade tonight but just wanted to say thanks as this has made my life more than a little easier. Importing articles on a nightly basis via cron jobs from various feeds is so much easier when i dont have to go into them all one by one to add an annoying read more tag.

    Probably a stupid question but the "Read More" text, does it come from a language file or is it coded somewhere, i'd like to change it to "click here to continue" as it's been studied that this increases click through rates from about 4% to over 11% on front page articles.

    Keep up the good work, and again many thanks, i'll drop by if the uninstall, reinstall goes well or tits up and let you know.

    Cheers

    Crusader.
     

  18. September 13th, 2009 at 23:19 | #18

    Hi

    I just installed the Beta and get this error when I go to a page in my website

    Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in /home/.sapphire/******/********/dev/plugins/content/AutoReadMore.php on line 30

    Im using Joomla 1.5.14

    rgds
    Mick
     

  19. September 14th, 2009 at 04:33 | #19

    JP and Mick: This issue has been tentatively fixed in 1.1Beta2.  Please let us know if you are still having the problem.
     

  20. Jeff
    October 12th, 2009 at 23:42 | #20

    Just playing around with things and trying to use CSS to accomplish the resizing effort.  Setup a css class as follows

    . thumbnail {
    width 50%
    height 50%
    }

    Thanks!
    Jeff...
     

  21. Sashi
    December 4th, 2009 at 06:02 | #21

    Thanks a lot for this fantastic plugin. This is the one iam looking for.
     

  22. December 11th, 2009 at 05:08 | #22

    Joomla really needs that extension. It really show be in core version :)
     

  23. Luke
    December 13th, 2009 at 21:54 | #23

    Thankyou thankyou guys,

    I read and tried the hacks but they didn't work in my template. This worked perfectly and cemented your status as legends in my book !
     

  24. December 26th, 2009 at 09:38 | #24

    GREAT WORK!!!!, this plugin is a must since joomla lacks the ability to do add read more automatic on to a section blog layout!

    I use this plugging with Feed Gator and i could not be any happier, thumbs up!

    I like to see for next version of the plugging more control for the Thumbnails things like size and alignment right from the plugging parameters, and a choice to alternate alignment from 1 article to the next.. if there is a way to do this manually i like to know, also if do not mind i will post a link on the joomla.org
     

  25. Stefan
    December 29th, 2009 at 03:25 | #25

    Hi,

    First, great work this plugin!!!

    But I've a problem:

    The readmore button appears only on the first article of every page and not on the articles thereafter.

    Is this a bug or am I misconfiguring something?

    Regards,

    Stefan
     

  26. Stefan
    December 29th, 2009 at 04:00 | #26

    I found the cause of this problem: The Content - JComments plugin. Disable it or set Readmore Style to "Joomla" instead of "JComments"
     

  27. Anonymous
    January 22nd, 2010 at 20:08 | #27

    thanks 4 u...
     

  28. Anonymous
    February 4th, 2010 at 01:41 | #28

    thank you very much, it works smoothly,

    thanks
     

  29. sky
    February 8th, 2010 at 18:02 | #29

    I uninstall the old ver, and install the latest version (1.1 Beta 3). then I found that somehow my category blog view now shows nothing but just the category title. If I disable the plugin, it loads fine again.
     

  30. February 8th, 2010 at 18:40 | #30

    You need to install the Tidy extension, or set "Strip Formatting" to "Yes".
     

  31. February 9th, 2010 at 10:59 | #31

    "Strip Formatting" produce a very strange effect : The explorer cannot find the website anymore, saying :"Problem loading page"

    Any idea ?
     

  32. February 9th, 2010 at 11:57 | #32

    You need to install the Tidy extension, or set "Strip Formatting" to "Yes".
     

  33. rishi
    February 10th, 2010 at 21:12 | #33

    Hi, Its work great but, It disable the content formatting. If i set Strip Formatting to No. I gets a blank page, I have also tried by activating different template, But it doesn't work,

    Please rectify this

    Thanks Rishiroy.
     

  34. February 10th, 2010 at 22:26 | #34

    You need to install the Tidy extension, or set "Strip Formatting" to "Yes".
     

  35. February 15th, 2010 at 20:40 | #35

    I've successfully installed the plugins and activated but does not work. The following error comes up:

    Fatal error: Class 'tidy' not found in /home/xxxxx/public_html/xxxxxx/plugins/content/AutoReadMore.php on line 105

    Need solution, please help.
     

  36. February 16th, 2010 at 12:01 | #36

    The next version of the plugin will have a BIG FLASHING BRIGHT RED message that says "You need to install the Tidy extension, or set 'Strip Formatting' to 'Yes'."
     

  37. andy
    March 3rd, 2010 at 09:25 | #37

    Hi great plugin .. thanks ..When I use this plugin It overrides my settings and puts the pdf,email and print logos on the articles .... I cant get rid of them when the plugin is enabled......have i missed something very obvious ?
     

  38. andy
    March 3rd, 2010 at 09:42 | #38

    Fixed ... !! My bad .. Thought i would post how to fix my problem here..
    I found you have to turn off pdf email etc. here as well as the individual articles when useing this plugin

    Menus >> Main Menu >> Home >> Parameters - Component.

    Thanks again for a great plugin
     

  39. March 20th, 2010 at 18:21 | #39

    Where is the "donate" button?
     

  40. Kate
    July 1st, 2010 at 19:29 | #40

    I love your work
     

  41. Laura
    September 10th, 2010 at 14:58 | #41

    Just installed this on my site (v.1.5.20) and had it working smoothly within 2 minutes! Thanks for a fantastic plug-in.
     

  42. Paul
    September 21st, 2010 at 14:55 | #42

    I'm loving how well this seems to work.  Great job.
     

  43. Patrick
    September 25th, 2010 at 07:09 | #43

    Great idea and implementation! Well done - and thank you.
     

  44. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2010 at 21:17 | #44

    Have the same issue as Business News above..

    getting following error comes up:

    Fatal error: Class 'tidy' not found in /home/xxxxx/public_html/xxxxxx/plugins/content/AutoReadMore.php on line 105

    I uninstalled it and used v1.0 which is working great, so why doesn't v1.1 beta 3 work?? Thanks for a reply on what would cause the problem
     

  45. September 29th, 2010 at 21:25 | #45

    Use the same solution ;)
     

  46. Mihai
    November 25th, 2010 at 07:57 | #46

    Activate the php_tidy extension on your server.
     

  47. Aphiwad
    March 22nd, 2011 at 19:34 | #47

    Great job!
    thanks so much :)
     

  48. bcre8ve
    July 27th, 2011 at 08:29 | #48

    Excellent Plugin!  Well documented in the code - a true sign of a professional coder.
     

  49. October 20th, 2011 at 06:04 | #49

    Yes yes yes.. this is what I'm looking for! Thanks a zillion....
     

  50. November 12th, 2011 at 03:23 | #50

    thanks very lot
     

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