Split the_title

Question

Is there a way to just split the_title into two different lines without a custom field?

The titles in my blog are like small header above the maintitle.

The Problem is, that at the moment I am using a custom field in the title - but google and disqus only use "original" title - without a custom field.

So my question - couldn't I just split the_title e.g. into TitlePart One: (header) TitlePart Two: Mainline.

Or can I use some code to make the custom field I am using for the title bring to the "original" title?

Answer 1

You could try to achieve this also with another approach: by entering both title and subtitle into the Title field, and separating them with some separation character you consistently use.

Then you would modify your theme ONLY at the places where you want the title to be split on different lines, where you would use something like this:

$mystring = get_the_title();
$findme   = ' - '; // your separator
$pos = strpos($mystring, $findme);
if ($pos === false) {
      $improved_title = '<h1>'$mystring.'</h1>';
  } else {
      // isolate part 1 and part 2.
      $title_part_one = strstr($mystring, ' - ', true); // As of PHP 5.3.0
      $title_part_two = strstr($mystring, ' - ');
      $improved_title = '<hgroup><h1>'.$title_part_one.'</h1><h2>'.$title_part_two.'</h1></hgroup>';
  }
echo $improved_title;

The great benefit of that approach:

In all the locations where you want both TitlePartOne and TitlePartTwo in the same field (like in the header, post listings, your RSS feed, the title attribute...) you are on the safe side and don't need to do anything.

Answer 2

The best way to go about it is using the the_title filter. Put the following code in your functions.php.

add_filter( 'the_title', 'wpse_64467_prefix_title', '', 2 );
function wpse_64467_prefix_title( $title, $id ){
    $header_title = get_post_meta( $id, 'header_title', true );
    $title = ( $header_title ) ? $header_title . ' - ' . $title : $title;
    return $title;
}

Just replace header_title with the custom field name you are using.

UPDATE: I guess google takes what it gets in the <title> tag in the head as the title. The above code won't modify that. To modify the same you need to use the single_post_title filter in the following manner.

add_filter( 'single_post_title', 'wpse_64467_prefix_wp_title', '', 2 );
function wpse_64467_prefix_wp_title( $title, $post ){
    $header_title = get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_custom_text', true );

    $title = ( $header_title ) ? $header_title . html_entity_decode( ' – ', ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8' ) . $title : $title;
    return $title;
}

P.S - It would take time for the google results to reflect.