How To Limit Keywords and Descriptions

[TheExplorer]

Hi,

Just wanted to ask whether a modification exists to limit keywords and description entires. I've seen it before, but couldn't find it again.

Is there a recommendation from some experienced members as to what number it should be specifically limited to for both?

Thanks!

[Bruceper]

How do you want to limit them? Do you want to limit how many characters they can put in the form or just how many are displayed?

[TheExplorer]

Just how many characters they can put in the form

[Bruceper]

You can use maxlength in the input tag to limit the number of characters to input.

<input type="text" maxlength="maxcharacters" etc...

[TheExplorer]

Any recommendations on the number of characters for keywords and description? What do you guys use?

[TheExplorer]

sorry, I don't know how that happened

[TheExplorer]

Could someone please help me modify my code and tell me how to do so as to limit keywords and description? If you have a recommended character number for each limitation it would also be of great help

Thanks Guys!

[Bruceper]

There is no limit, high or low.

Assume an average word is 7 characters, and you want to allow no more than 10 keywords, so you would use maxlength=76 (7x10+6 spaces)

description is the same, but typically larger. Perhaps a value between 150 and 250.

To use maxlength I would suggest you go to google and search for "html form" and you'd find a site that would show you how to use maxlength and all the other fun toys you can use on a form.

Then you would edit add_form.html and possibly upgrade.html

[FSGDAG]

Some of the other directories I've visited to submit my sites have used a max of 250 for the keywords and about 400 for the description.

Hope that helps

[TheExplorer]

Thanks for the pointers guys. I'm still unsure about the following, I added maxlength, but it doesn't work

      <label for="description">Description</label>
      <textarea id="description" name="description" cols="35" rows="10" maxlength="255" style="overflow: auto;"><%$description%></textarea>

[Bruceper]

I didn't know this one, but if you searched Google for "form maxlength textarea" you would have found out that maxlength doesn't apply to textarea.

Perhaps take a look ar http://www.allthescripts.com/page-458642.htm for a solution

[mpdaddy]

You could use Javascript to limit the field to x-characters and show the user how many characters they have left. Check this one out.

http://www.phpinsider.com/php/code/SmartyFormtool/demo/

[woolfie]

Here is what I am using. Works great. I have included the whole line of code for you to get a better idea of the context. There are a lot of great answers here but sometimes they are so abbreviated and assumptive of knowledge level that it takes me a while to figure out the "what", "where" and "how" of the answer.

This code is in rows.html which is in the themes folder in the theme you are using.

<strong>Description :</strong> <%$description|truncate:300%>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="<%$site_url%>/<%$detail_page_url%>">[more...]</a> <br>

The number in blue is the number of characters.

I used the word and character count function in the Tools bar of MS Word to determine the optimum size.

Did this help you? If so, please link to one of these sites!

http://www.bigfreeguide.com/camping/ or http://www.geogolfcourse.co.uk or http://www.places2b.co.ukor http://www.theleisureguide.co.uk or http://www.time-waster.co.uk or http://www.touristdetective.co.uk or http://www.camplinks.co.uk or http://www.afterdirectory.com OR, Add all of them to your general directory!!

[mpdaddy]

I have implemented the above javascript into my add link form. It is very simple and gives the users a visual on how many characters they can use and how many characters they have left. You can see it in action at http://www.scriptdragon.com/add.php. You can log in with
Username: test
Password: test

Here is how I did it.

Open themes/yourtheme/add_form.html and find this section (Note: I am using the portaldex theme for this example, so your code may bbe slightly different depending on your theme.):

    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="<%$tpl_base%>/calendar.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="<%$tpl_base%>/calendar-en.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="<%$tpl_base%>/calendar-setup.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="<%$tpl_base%>/json.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="<%$tpl_base%>/ajax.js"></script>

and add this directly after it

    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="<%$tpl_base%>/formtool.js"></script>

Now scroll a few lines down and find this (or similar):

      <label for="description">Description</label>
      <textarea id="description" name="description" cols="35" rows="10" style="overflow: auto;"><%$description%></textarea>

and make it look similar to this:

      <label for="description">Description</label>
      <textarea id="description" name="description" cols="35" rows="10" style="overflow: auto;" onkeyup="javascript:formtool_count_chars(this.form.elements['description'],this.form.elements['description_limit'],500,true)"><%$description%></textarea>
      <div class="inline">
      Limit: <input type="text" name="description_limit" size="3" readonly="readonly" value="500" /> Characters
      </div>

In the above code change the number 500 (in both locations) to match the maximum characters you want to allow in the field.

No go to http://www.phpinsider.com/php/code/SmartyFormtool/ and download the script and extract it. Upload the javascript file and the edited add_form.html file into the same directory. You are done.

This should only take about 5 minutes to complete. Good luck.