Custom excerpt showing first paragraph (with HTML formatting)

Question

Can somebody help me how to show the full first paragraph of the post, including all used tags (no stripping)?

My code:

function new_excerpt_more() {
  global $post;
  return '…</p><div class="more-link-wrapper"><a href="'. get_permalink(get_the_ID()) . '" class="more-link">' . 'Read more' . '</a></div>';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');

It is basically only closing the excerpt paragraph and adding read more link.

Thank you

Answer 1

Here is a function that keeps HTML tags in tact, adds a "Read More" link at the end of the excerpt and trims the excerpt after the first paragraph.

if ( ! function_exists( 'wpse0001_custom_wp_trim_excerpt' ) ) : 

    function wpse0001_custom_wp_trim_excerpt($wpse0001_excerpt) {
    global $post;
    $raw_excerpt = $wpse0001_excerpt;
        if ( '' == $wpse0001_excerpt ) {

            $wpse0001_excerpt = get_the_content('');
            $wpse0001_excerpt = strip_shortcodes( $wpse0001_excerpt );
            $wpse0001_excerpt = apply_filters('the_content', $wpse0001_excerpt);
            $wpse0001_excerpt = substr( $wpse0001_excerpt, 0, strpos( $wpse0001_excerpt, '</p>' ) + 4 );
            $wpse0001_excerpt = str_replace(']]>', ']]&gt;', $wpse0001_excerpt);

            $excerpt_end = ' <a href="'. esc_url( get_permalink() ) . '">' . '&nbsp;&raquo;&nbsp;' . sprintf(__( 'Read more about: %s &nbsp;&raquo;', 'pietergoosen' ), get_the_title()) . '</a>'; 
            $excerpt_more = apply_filters('excerpt_more', ' ' . $excerpt_end); 

            //$pos = strrpos($wpse0001_excerpt, '</');
            //if ($pos !== false)
            // Inside last HTML tag
            //$wpse0001_excerpt = substr_replace($wpse0001_excerpt, $excerpt_end, $pos, 0);
            //else
            // After the content
            $wpse0001_excerpt .= $excerpt_end;

            return $wpse0001_excerpt;   

        }
        return apply_filters('wpse0001_custom_wp_trim_excerpt', $wpse0001_excerpt, $raw_excerpt);
    }

endif; 

remove_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt');
add_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wpse0001_custom_wp_trim_excerpt'); 

Please note, the "Read More" will be in a new paragraph, if you need the "read More" next to the last word, just remove the // from this code

//$pos = strrpos($wpse0001_excerpt, '</');
            //if ($pos !== false)
            // Inside last HTML tag
            //$wpse0001_excerpt = substr_replace($wpse0001_excerpt, $excerpt_end, $pos, 0);
            //else
            // After the content

EDIT

You will still call the_excerpt() the usual way in your template files using the_excerpt()